Hamilton victory marred by Bianchi crash

FORMULA 1 Lewis Hamilton won a dramatic rainlashed Japanese Grand Prix to extend his lead over Nico Rosberg in the drivers' championship.

But the Briton's victory was marred by a crash that saw Marussia driver Jules Bianchi crash into a recovery vehicle, he was airlifted to hospital where his condition remains critical.

With the rain lashing down the race began under the safety car but was quickly halted as conditions became undriveable and the cars were escorted to the pit lane where they waited a restart.

That came after 20 minutes, but once again the safety car led the way as the cars slowly made their way around the circuit. The safety car did eventually pull in after lap nine, and the race proper got underway. At this stage Nico Rosberg, who had started from pole, was at the head of affairs and appeared to be comfortably holding off Hamilton.

However on lap 28 that all changed, when the Briton swept around the outside of Rosberg to take the lead in sensational style and once clear he pulled away to chalk-up his third consecutive grand prix victory.

The race, however, was cut short following Bianchi's crash and it was eventually red flagged on lap 46, leaving Hamilton victorious with Rosberg second and Sebastian Vettel third.

But the muted celebrations on the podium clearly showed that the drivers' thoughts were clearly with Bianchi.