Mark Webber won his first grand prix of the year, after a gearbox issue for Sebastian Vettel dropped him to second.
It was a clean start for everyone; however, both Ferraris started well, with Alonso jumping Hamilton to take fourth. Team mate Felipe Massa managed to slip into sixth behind Lewis. At the very front, Sebastian Vettel got the perfect start, and he started to pull away. Webber couldn't do much, but to increase his gap to Button in third. Jenson; however, had to pay more attention to Alonso behind him. Fernando managed get a good run on him down th DRS straight, then going around turn 5, Alonso got alongside Button, and squeezed into third place.
In the midfield, Schumacher and Senna ere fighting for ninth. Michael seemed to get the jump on Senna at turn 1, but the but wasn't over and the two caught each other. Schumacher had a puncture, while Bruno broke a bit of his Renault front wing. After a while to look at the incident, the Brazilian got a drive-through penalty. Michael; meanwhile, had pitted, and rejoined in last place, and a lap down.
Back at the front, it looked as if Vettel could do no wrong. However, it soon came apparent that they could, as his Red Bull developed a Gearbox problem. First it was a problem with first and second gears, but then it spread to all the gears, with the World Champion having to short-shift on every gear change. This left with the German's lap times falling, and meant that Webber was closing in behind. It was not long until the Australian took the lead of his team mate, who gave no fight. Webber now lead his team mate, then Alonso, Button, Hamilton & Massa. Then it was Sutil who was fighting, and winning, against Rosberg.
At the mid-way point, drivers were coming in for the second of three stops. Jenson Button was the first, but he surprised the field by putting on the harder tyres. When the other leaders pitted, they put the softer tyres on. Button did not loose from the decision, indeed, he was going just as fast on these. He was still following Alonso, but behind, Massa (who was on a different strategy) was ahead of Hamilton. When Lewis came out of the pits, there was very little between the two drivers. Luckily though, nothing was added to their patched history, as a gearbox problem for Lewis ended his race. This left Felipe with plenty of breathing space, with Sutil a far way behind.
On the last set of pit stops, Button stayed on the harder tyres, and was joined by the Red Bulls and Ferraris. Jenson was in fourth, but was only 10 seconds behind Alonso in third. Then, when he got permission from his race engineer to do qualifying laps to the end of the race, Jenson set about catching Fernando for that final podium place. The Brit set fastest lap after fastest lap, and was soon all over the back of the Spaniard. Going around turn 1, there was little between the two, then with the help of DRS, Button eased his way onto the podium. Next up for him was Vettel, 10 seconds down the road. Jenson was told to try and catch him, but he would have to catch him at over a second a lap, and then take him, all in only 9 laps.
Button pushed Vettel, but never really got close to taking second. In the end, it was Mark Webber, who took his first race win since Hungary 2010. Vettel took 2nd, taking his 17th podium of the year. Jenson Button's third was enough to see him take second in the Drivers Championships. Further down, Adrian Sutil did a great job in his Force India to take sixth, ahead of Rosberg & Di Resta, while Kobayashi finished in ninth.
Race Results
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
2 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
3 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 4
4 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 5
5 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
6 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 9
7 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 7
8 - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 17
9 - Kamui Kobyashi - Sauber - 15
10 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 11
11 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 12
12 - Sebastien Buemi - Toro Rosso - 13
13 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - 21
14 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
15 - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 10
16 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 19
17 - Bruno Senna - Renault - 26
18 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 18
19 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 29
20 - Daniel Ricciardo - HRT - 35
R - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 23
R - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 3
R - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - 24
R - Timo Glock - Virgin - 20
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