Lewis Hamilton drove in what he called the “sauna-like” conditions of the European Grand Prix in Valencia yesterday suffering the after-effects of flu and neck spasms that threatened to prevent him driving at all.

After finishing second in a notably dull race on the new street track around the America's Cup harbour in the Spanish port, Hamilton revealed that he had been suffering fevers and lethargy and had awoken at 4am on Saturday with spasms in his neck.

Sitting alongside the race winner, Felipe Massa, of Ferrari, the British driver drew expressions of mock sympathy from Massa and Robert Kubica, of BMW Sauber, who finished third, in a bit of banter at the post-race press conference as he explained his symptoms.

“I've had a pretty miserable weekend,” Hamilton said after securing his seventh podium finish of the season in his McLaren Mercedes. “I had flu when I arrived. I had pretty hard fevers pretty much every day and low energy. I had quite a big problem with a spasm in my neck which, kind of, did nearly lead to me not racing.”

As he was describing how the spasms, for which he was given injections and painkillers, were “probably something to do with my pillow, the way I was sleeping”, Kubica could take it no more. The deadpan Pole, one of the hard men of Formula One and a long-time friend of Hamilton, delivered a “poor diddums” put-down. Hamilton responded by alleging that Kubica goes nowhere without a cuddly toy. “At least I don't travel everywhere with my teddy bear,” he said.

The exchange came after a race in which there was almost no overtaking and where Massa had imposed himself from the start. The Brazilian was delighted to complete the job from pole after the agony of having his engine fail at the Hungarian Grand Prix three weeks ago just three laps from victory. The win lifts Massa above Kimi Raikkonen, his team-mate, to second in the drivers' championship, six points behind Hamilton, and underlines his de facto status as the Scuderia's No1 driver and arguably the biggest threat to Hamilton's championship ambitions.

Massa said: “Getting pole position, winning the race and getting the fastest lap, there is nothing more you can ask for, especially after the result in Hungary.” His team were fined €10,000 (about £8,000) for releasing him “unsafely” from his second pit-stop, which almost led to him colliding in the pit-lane with Adrian Sutil, the Force India driver.

While Hamilton drove a solid race to take a valuable eight points, Raikkonen had another unsatisfactory but also dramatic afternoon. Pitting for the second time from fifth place after losing ground at the start, the Iceman set off from his pit-box fractionally early and before the fuel hose had been removed. In the chaos that followed, the mechanic holding the hose was knocked over, injuring his back and foot.

Three laps later Raikkonen's engine blew up in a spectacular plume of white smoke, the second Ferrari engine failure in two races leading to rumours, flatly denied by the team, that they have been illegally modifying their engines during the second year of the five-year engine freeze.