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Lewis Hamilton: Did F1 star really spray Vladimir Putin with champagne?

If Vladimir Putin has ever doubted sport's value in raising a country's global profile, then Sunday's Russian Grand Prix should have laid that idea to rest.

It wasn't so much the high-speed Formula One action on the Sochi Autodrome that lit up social media, but images which appeared to show F1 driver Lewis Hamilton spraying Russia's president with champagne.

The president of Russia V. Putin congratulates the winner of a stage of the races Formula One in Sochi Lewis Hamilton. October 12, 2014.

Closer inspection revealed that the enthusiastic Hamilton merely caught the back of Putin's jacket with bubbly as the race benefactor left the stage, but that didn't stop the 63-year-old's reputation as a tough leader becoming the butt of a number of online jokes.

Putin during one of his annual Q&A conferences, indicating with his pen

Lewis Hamilton won the Russian Formula One Grand Prix in Sochi on Sunday (October 11), taking a massive step toward winning the drivers’ championship in the process. Starting second on the grid, Hamilton took advantage of his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg’s early crash to move into the lead. The 30 year-old Briton never looked back as he cruised to victory ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

2014 Russian Grand Prix start lane

Hamilton also won the Russian race in 2014, its inaugural staging as part of a reported $200 million deal to make it part of the F1 calendar until 2020.

The Sochi Autodrome cost more than $330 million to build and is part of a $50 billion renovation of the Black Sea resort. As well as hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics, Putin hoped to turn Sochi into an international business and holiday destination.

2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Sochi, Russia

Hamilton, for his part, was happy to play ambassador for the grand prix. Said the British driver,

"I'm very, very proud to be here in Russia, we've had a great time, thank you so much everyone. Beautiful, beautiful country. If you're watching and you've never been out here, you should definitely come."

Sochi seen from the Black Sea

(All images - credit: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licence)