SOCHI, September 30. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has awarded the prize to Britain’s four-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton who won the 2018 Formula One Russian Grand Prix race.

The Russian president traditionally visits the Formula 1 races in Sochi every year.

Before the awarding ceremony, Putin spoke with Hamilton and congratulated him of the victory. After the ceremony, the Russian president spoke with representatives from the F1 sponsor companies, including with VTB CEO Andrei Kostin. Putin also spoke with Russian GP3 racer Nikita Mazelin.

Team Mercedes was victorious for the fifth time in Sochi after its two drivers swept on Sunday the top two steps of the podium at the 2018 Formula One Russian Grand Prix.

The race was won by Britain’s four-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton and it was his third victory here in Sochi after the F1 World Championships came to Russia in 2014.

His Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas finished the race second and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who is also the four-time F1 world champion, completed the trio of winners.

The contract to include Russia in the calendar of F1 racing for the 2014-2020 period was signed in 2010 in Sochi by then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Formula One’s former chief executive Bernie Ecclestone. In early 2017, the contract to hold F1 racing in Russia’s Sochi was extended until 2025.

The inaugural Formula One race in Sochi in 2014 and the next one in 2015 were held in October, but the following two Grand Prix races (in 2016 and 2017) were rescheduled to late April and early May timeframe. This year the race in Russia was rescheduled again.