The race was quite chaotic, as rain once again provided the tri-factor in the overall classification. Fernando Alonso had a dreamy start to begin with, jump-starting in front of the two Red Bull RB6s driven by Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. After the first corner though, the safety car was deployed, following a major pile-up that ended Vitantonio Liuzzi’s, Kamui Kobayashi’s and Sebastien Buemi’s race.
Alonso and the rest of the pack soon entered the pits to switch to intermediate tires, whereas Button and Nico Rosberg gambled on slick tires and remained in front of the field. The Ferrari-an was soon handled a drive-through penalty that dropped him to 14th place overall, and from that point on he had to do another remarkable recovery race to 4th place at the finish line.
Rosberg managed to keep a good pace ahead of Button throughout the first few laps after the safety car went in but, on Lap 18, the McLaren driver pulled off a superb move on the German at the end of Turn 14 to finally grab the lead. From that point on, Button fully controlled the race until the chequered flag, as he build up a considerable gap from the Mercedes GP driver to race worriless until the final lap.
Hamilton, on the other hand, made a last-second call to enter the pits and change to intermediates, which cost him more than 10 positions in the race. The 2008 world champion started passing drivers lap after lap – a great maneuver against Michael Schumacher was the highlight – until the safety car took another few laps around the Shanghai circuit due to a self-inflicted car damage sustained by Jaime Alguersuari.
By that point, all race contenders had already gone into the pit lane for a new set of tires – as the rain intensified – including race leader Button. However, the positions in front did not change much, while Fernando Alonso passed his teammate on the pit lane entry to steal the Brazilian’s upper hand in the tire change.
The move brought Alonso in 10th place and, with the field compressed behind the safety car, the Spaniard was once again a contender for a podium finish.
In the meantime, Hamilton passed Renault’s duo Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov, and began reducing the gap consistently behind Rosberg. The Brit even tried to pass the German a few times, but the Mercedes GP driver maintained his position by the next and final pit stop.
Following the last round of pit stops, Hamilton passed Rosberg for 2nd place, whereas Alonso passed both Petrov – driving error – and Kubica – in the pits – to emerge in 4th place. From that point on, the positions in the first part of the field remained untouched – with gas being reduced or getting bigger due to either tire wear or intense rain – while all the action was transferred to the back.
While Kubica and Sebastian Vettel ran in some decent 5th and 6th places respectively, it was Petrov who provided the show in the last 5 laps of the race. Dropping all the way into 11th place after his last pit stop, the Russian pulled off some great maneuvers on Jaime Alguersuari, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber to finish the race on an impressive 7th place.
The Top 10 was completed by Webber, Massa and Schumacher, while Force India’s Adrian Sutil missed out on points by only one second.
With his great win in China, Button now leads the championship with an overall 60 points, 10 more than Nico Rosberg and 11 ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.
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