Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel wins Malaysian F1 GP - Vodafone-McLaren's 2009 F1 World Champion Button finishes on 8th position

Finally, and after failing to convert pole position into victory in the first two rounds of the much anticipated 2010 Formula 1 season, Redbull driver Sebastian Vettel scored a maiden victory on the Sepang Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Starting from P3 behind Nico Rosberg who scored the first front-row for Mercedes GP and teammate and pole sitter Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel took the lead starting from turn one. Mark Webber ran wide into turn one, and Vettel exploited the situation to guide the rest of the field for the rest of the race.

Michael Schumacher jumped two positions to place six during the starting phase of the race taking the left hand side of the straight leading to turn one, while Vodafone McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton took the right hand side. The British Vodafone McLaren driver who started from P20 managed to finish lap one on a respectable twelfth position.

Unfortunately for the 7-time F1 World Champion and current Mercedes F1 GP driver Michael Schumacher, his brilliant start could not be coined into a promising result, as lap 11 witnessed his retirement when his car lost the wheel nut of his rear left tire.

Mark Webber stayed close to Sebastian Vettel until the pit stop, but lost decisive two and a half seconds during his tire stop because of a wheel-gun problem, and finished the race 4.8s behind his teammate.

Nico Rosberg on Mercedes GP finished in third and headed home Robert Kubica who scored yet again a remarkable result for Renault. The Pole gave the German some tough time, but was never able to challenge the latter seriously.

Adrian Sutil drove a superb race for Force India finishing fifth after fending off attacks from Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton during the last few laps of the race.

Felipe Massa who started from a low grid position was stuck behind the feisty Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Jenson Button for a long period of time in the final phase of the race. By pressing the magic “button� to change the composition of the fuel like he was told by the team, Massa overtook the 2009 Formula 1 World champion, after being informed that Fernando Alonso is gaining ground on the duo.

The Spaniard tried several times to overtake Jenson Button, and almost succeeded in lap 55 but as the Ferrari slid wide in Turn one after braking too late, the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes carrying number 1 re-passed him. Immediately after this overtaking maneuver the Spaniard’s engine broke, dropping him back to a 13th-place finish.

Jaime Alguersuari again drove an excellent race for Toro Rosso and was rewarded with two points for ninth, with Nico Hulkenberg-starting from P5- taking the final point for Williams thanks to Alonso’s engine failure. It should be mentioned here, that this was the third engine he has used since the beginning of this Formula 1 season. Not a good indicator about the reliability of the Maranello produced Formula 1 engines.

Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi arrived at 11th place in front of Rubens Barrichello, whose Williams was the dominant static obstacle during the start of the race so that Alonso had to evade it with a phenomenal movement.

Vitaly Petrov ran quite well initially, earning Lewis Hamilton a yellow warning card form the stewards after the Briton crisscrossed too much keeping the Renault driver behind him on the pit straight. Later on the Russian driver retired with a mechanical failure.

Vodafone McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton finished the race on 6th position while his team-mate Jenson Button finished on 8th position.

This result has dramatically pinnacled the battle for crucial championship points. Ferrari driver Felipe Massa now leads the Formula 1 driver championship with 39 points ahead of Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel on 37, Jenson Button and Nico Rosberg on 35, Lewis Hamilton on 31 and Robert Kubica on 30. In the constructors’ championship Ferrari still leads with 76, but McLaren now are on 66, Red Bull 61, Mercedes 44 and Renault 30.

AE