Marussia driver Jules Bianchi was unconscious when taken to a local hospital after a horrific crash soon after Sauber’s Adrian Sutil, who was OK after the race, went into the wall.
Celebrations were subdued for Hamilton but his brave move to pass team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg in the driving rain will be something worth savouring.
They finished one-two again, with out-going Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel claiming third ahead of his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo who although finishing ahead of the German missed the podium on a countback – places are decided at the end of the lap before the race was stopped.
Hamilton is now 10 points ahead of Rosberg with 125 points available in the remaining four events.
After a start under the safety car and a red flag two laps in, and then eight more laps under the safety car, the drivers were able to get down to business with limited – if any at all – visibility.
The Mercedes drivers switched to intermediate tyres on laps 3 and 4 and then went hammer and tong for the lead.
Hamilton’s bold move for the lead came on turn one of lap 29 as Rosberg defended a move on the inside and the Brit went around the outside.
“That was bravery in the extreme,” BBC commentator David Coulthard said.
Once in the lead Hamilton wasn’t to be catched, stretching the margin to 16 seconds before ending at 44 laps.
While champagne was dished out to the top three, as is tradition, there was no spraying in celebration out of respect for the unknown condition of Bianchi.
Ricciardo, who produced some of the most scintillating passing in the race, said: “The race was OK, it was quite fun. Once we got going we had good pace after some poor visibility. The end was set up to be pretty quick but the red flag came out. Jules is my main concern right now.”
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