SOCHI • Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton yesterday became the first Formula One driver to win 100 grands prix with a dramatic rain-assisted victory in Russia that sent him back to the top of the championship.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen finished an impressive second at Sochi's Olympic Park, after starting 20th and last due to engine penalties, thereby limiting the damage from his rival's win.

Hamilton, who started fourth on the grid and trailing by five points, is now two points clear of the Dutchman with seven races left.

Carlos Sainz was third for Ferrari but there was heartbreak for McLaren's Lando Norris. He led three laps from the end but opted to stay out on slick tyres as the rain began to fall. He took seventh.

"What a race the weather provided. It's taken a long time to get to 100. I wasn't sure it would come," said Hamilton, who last season passed Ferrari great Michael Schumacher's previous record of 91 wins. "Max did a really great job to come up to second from last. We've got our work cut out."

The Briton, 36, had pitted for intermediate tyres with four laps to go whilst in second place and it was the right decision as Norris, on pole for the first time in his career and heading for a first win, found out to his dismay.

The 21-year-old Briton slid and slithered on the treacherous surface as Hamilton made up the 25-second gap and seized the lead.

Norris admitted he and his team made "the wrong call", saying: "I don't know where to start. I'm unhappy, devastated in a way... I'm happy with everything apart from that one decision which we'll review and try not to make again."

McLaren's blunder was Mercedes' gain, Hamilton said.

"The team made a great call right at the end. I didn't want to let Lando go and I didn't know what the weather was doing," he added.

"It would've been tough to get past Lando unless we came up to some traffic or he made a mistake, which he hasn't been doing, so then the rain came and it was very opportunistic."

While Hamilton celebrated a personal century, his Mercedes team maintained their own 100 per cent record in Sochi. The Silver Arrows have won every Russian Grand Prix since the first in 2014.

On Hamilton's landmark - five of his 100 victories have been in Sochi - Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: "We are witnesses of a career that is just amazing. Only years down the line are we going to realise we are part of that.

"I think if you were to be in awe, it would be the wrong type of working relationship. But you realise you are part a journey that no other driver in the history of Formula One has been on before."

Verstappen was almost as happy as Hamilton and Wolff after an "unexpected" runner-up finish.

"To come from last to second is very, very good. With the penalty we had, to only lose one spot is definitely not too bad. When I woke up this morning, I definitely didn't expect this result," he said

Crucially, he got his power-unit penalty out of the way, with Hamilton possibly still needing to take an extra power unit and associated grid drop at a later race.

"Today was like a victory for us," team principal Christian Horner said.

REUTERS