Chinese GP: Vettel dominates and wins in the rain

Red Bull double at the Chinese Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel dominated the race, held entirely in the rain, winning ahead of his teammate Mark Webber. Third and fourth place for the Brawn GPs of Button and Barrichello, fifth and sixth for the McLaren Mercedes of Kovalainen and Hamilton. Glock (Toyota) and Buemi (Toro Rosso) also scored points. Ferrari still with zero points: Raikkonen only tenth, Massa retired.

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The race starts behind the safety car due to heavy rain and low visibility. Several off-track excursions, including those of Felipe Massa and Adrian Sutil who came in on the fourth lap to change tires and top up fuel, a similar move on the following lap also for Rosberg and on the seventh lap for Alonso.

The safety car returns on lap eight, the real race begins. Vettel immediately takes a good lead over Webber and Barrichello while Hamilton attacks and immediately overtakes Raikkonen in sixth position. Barrichello is third ahead of Button and Trulli. Ninth place for Buemi ahead of Heidfeld, Kovalainen and Massa. Meanwhile, Rosberg and Alonso fell to the back of the field after the break.

Raikkonen reports a power loss via radio. Buemi tries to attack him but ends up wide at the last corner, as does Kovalainen. The Toro Rosso driver manages to maintain his position while Kovalainen loses a position to Massa. On the tenth lap Hamilton gains another position, also overtaking Trulli.

More problems for Raikkonen: the Finn is overtaken by Buemi and Massa. On lap 12 Hamilton spun and fell to tenth place.

Meanwhile Button overtook Barrichello. The two Red Bulls set the pace while the Brawn GPs follow at a distance of 11 and 17 seconds. Glock, 12th, and Heidfeld, 13th, collide, the German ends up spinning.

On lap 13 Massa attacks Trulli decisively and overtakes him for sixth position. Meanwhile, Hamilton has already overtaken Kovalainen and is already attacking Raikkonen. On lap 14 Webber returns to the pits for the first stop. Meanwhile, Barrichello continues to lose ground: he is now 9"4 behind his teammate, 23" behind Vettel while Buemi reduces the gap to the Brazilian.

Raikkonen and Hamilton also attack and easily overtake Trulli. On the following lap Vettel also stops in the pits, Button takes the lead ahead of Barrichello and the German from Red Bull. Meanwhile, Hamilton overtook Raikkonen and gained seventh place. Trulli continues to lose position: the Italian also has to give way to Kovalainen, Bourdais and Glock.

On lap 18, a bad accident between Trulli and Kubica: the Pole fails to brake and violently hits the rear of the Toyota, the BMW rears up due to the impact. Trulli loses the front wing, Kubica the nose. Kubica manages to return to the pits while the safety car goes out to remove the debris on the track. He also pits for Heidfeld, Button, Barrichello and Buemi.

Trulli still proceeds slowly without a rear wing, Vettel slows down and Buemi hits the German's rear tire with his front wing. No damage to Vettel while Buemi was forced to return to the pits. Meanwhile, Trulli returns to the pits and retires.

Vettel is in the lead ahead of Button, Massa, Webber, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Barrichello, Kovalainen, Bourdais and Buemi. On lap 21 Massa remained stopped on the track and retired.

Bourdais spins and falls to 12th place. The race restarts on lap 22. Hamilton overtakes Raikkonen once again, now fourth. Alonso overtakes Nakajima in tenth place. Vettel meanwhile already has a 4"3 lead over Button.

Glock returns to the pits with a damaged front wing, restarts after replacing the nose. Raikkonen returns on lap 27 for his only stop. Piquet crashes into a cork pylon on the edge of the track after a spin, ruins his nose and returns to the pits for a replacement.

On lap 29 Webber overtakes Button after a long move from the Englishman. Vettel now leads his teammate by 10 seconds. Webber, however, goes wide and Button overtakes him. Meanwhile, Alonso overtook Buemi in seventh place. Webber doesn't give up and on lap 32 he immediately overtakes the Englishman from Brawn GP by force. On lap 34 Hamilton returns for his first stop and returns to the track in eighth position. He also stops for Kovalainen while the nose of Kubica's car is coming off on the left side.

At this stage Webber is the fastest on the track and pushes hard to gain a good advantage over Button and stay ahead of the Englishman who has an advantage in terms of fuel. Vettel responds to his teammate, the Red Bulls lap at a pace of 1'53, the Brawn at 1'56. Vettel now has a 17.5 lead over Webber, 24" over Button. Barrichello is further behind, 40 seconds behind the German.

Alonso and Kubica return. Buemi rises to fifth place behind Barrichello and ahead of Hamilton, Sutil, Kovalainen, Heidfeld, Rosberg and Raikkonen.

Vettel returns on lap 37 for his second stop. The German returns to the track in third position, behind Button. Alonso spins but resumes in 13th place.

Webber returns for the second stop on lap 39 and returns to the track in third position, behind Vettel. Meanwhile, Glock overtakes Raikkonen in 11th position.

On lap 40 Vettel overtakes Button and regains the lead of the race. On lap 41 Rosberg is the first to mount intermediate tyres. Alonso also overtook Raikkonen who slipped to 12th position. Button returns on lap 42 for his second stop and is still on extreme wet tyres. On the 43rd lap Barrichello also returns and takes on only petrol but does not change the tyres.

Vettel is still in the lead with a 15"5 lead over Webber and a full 32" over Button. Buemi is fourth ahead of Barrichello, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Sutil, Heidfeld, Glock, Alonso and Raikkonen.

Buemi returns on lap 45 for his second stop and returns to the track in tenth position. Piquet crashes again, another nose replacement.

Hamilton goes wide and is passed by Kovalainen. Rosberg spins on the intermediate tires but continues and mounts the heavy rain tires again. On lap 49 another spin for Hamilton, Sutil overtakes him.

The German spins and hits the wall, destroying the front of his Force India.

Vettel goes on to win after dominating the race ahead of his teammate Webber. Button is also on the podium. Fourth place for Barrichello ahead of the two McLarens of Kovlainen and Hamilton.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1h57:43.485 2. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 10.970 3. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) + 44.975 4. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes (B ) + 1:03.704 5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1:05.102 6. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1:11.866 7. Glock Toyota (B) + 1:14.476 8. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari ( B) + 1:16.439 9. Alonso Renault (B) + 1:24.309 10. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 1:31.750 11. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1:34.156 12. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 1:35.834 13. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 1:46.853 14. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap 15. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap 16. Piquet Renault (B) + 2 laps