Red Bull's Max Verstappen shrugged off a poor start to the French Grand Prix on Sunday to claim an important victory that extends his leads at the top of the drivers standings.

Running on a two-stop strategy, the Belgian overtook Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes with just one lap to go, taking him to 131 points, 12 ahead of the Briton.

"The two-stop pit stop [strategy] paid off. The whole race we were fighting each other. I think it will be like this for the rest of the season," he said at the end of the race.

Hamilton acknowledged that the Red Bull's were stronger this weekend, but insisted he was happy with the second-place finish achieved in a one-stop strategy.

"Congratulations to Max, he did a great job. I am happy with the result, unfortunately I lost the position but it was still a great race. We have got to dig deep and find some pace," he said.

A similar scenario played out between the second Red Bull and Mercedes cars, as Sergio Perez overtook Valtteri Bottas in the latter stages of the race to earn the Bulls their first double podium finish of the season.

Botts managed to cross the finish line in fourth place, ahead of Maclaren duo Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo.

Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly finished 7th ahead of Alpine's Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin duo of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll respectively.

Sunday's results mean Red Bull stretched their lead at the top of the Constructor's Championship to 215 points, 37 ahead of second-placed Mercedes.