Lewis Hamilton left the Circuit Paul Ricard on Sunday - doubtless finding some way to avoid the traffic jams that blighted the track's return to the calendar for the first time in 28 years - with a 14-point championship lead, and after about as dominant a performance as has been seen in this incredibly close season.

The title battle between the Mercedes driver and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel will, as Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said after the race, presumably continue to swing as the season develops.

But in such a tight fight, drivers have to maximise their results as much as possible. And Vettel was guilty in France - not for the first time this year, or last - of giving points away needlessly. Will it come back to haunt him by the end of the year?

• Hamilton wins French GP as Vettel penalised
• Relive Hamilton's French Grand Prix victory

Vettel's critical error

Vettel was always likely to lose points to Hamilton at this race; the Mercedes was just too quick to expect anything else, especially once the Briton had put it on pole.

But Vettel still would have finished on the podium had it not been for the incident on the first lap that defined the race.

The German, as so often, got a great start from third on the grid, and was quickly tucked up right behind Hamilton, and alongside the sister Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, on the run to the first corner. And then it all went wrong.

Although in a strong position, and briefly into second ahead of Bottas, Vettel realised that he was trapped, and tried to back out of it. But he lost control and spun into the Finn's car, damaging both, forcing them into the pits and consigning them to a fight back through the field.

"It was my mistake," Vettel said. "I tried to brake early and get out of it because I had nowhere to go, but I had no room. When you are so close to a car ahead and also the car next to you, you lose… it felt like all the grip.

• Listen: 'We said there'd be fireworks at the start'

Despite being caught up in the mayhem, Valtteri Bottas recorded the fastest lap of the race - 1:34.225 on Lap 41

"With hindsight, I would like to have had a worse start because then it is clear for Turn One. But I was a bit squeezed, couldn't really go anywhere, lost the car, it snapped and I had to make contact with Valtteri, which is a shame for him, he did nothing wrong.

"It was a chain reaction. At least we both could continue but it was not the race we wanted."

Vettel produced a stirring fightback drive and, despite a five-second penalty for causing a collision, still managed to finish ahead of Bottas, who clawed his way back to seventh in a car with a badly damaged diffuser, affecting grip and balance.

At Mercedes, they felt the penalty was not enough, considering the effect Vettel had on Bottas' race.

Hamilton, watching the incident in the green room after the race, said: "Oh, man, that's crazy."

Later, he added: "You shouldn't be able to take someone out and then finish ahead of them and kind of get away with it. If it was me, if I was Sebastian, I would feel: 'Jeez, I got away with that.' And if I was Valtteri, I would be very unhappy right now."

Bottas was unhappy - he really is not having the rub of the green so far this season.

As for Hamilton, perhaps his comments were coloured by last year's Azerbaijan Grand Prix, when Vettel had his infamous 'red-mist' moment and deliberately drove into Hamilton in response to erroneously thinking the Briton had 'brake-tested' him.

Vettel was given a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for that. Hamilton should have won, but because his headrest came loose and he had to pit to have it secured, he ended up a place behind Vettel.