World champion Jenson Button took his second win of the season in a chaotic, rain-marred Chinese Grand Prix. Button adjudged his tyre strategy correctly once again, this time more his own calling than a possibly lucky one in Australia. Lewis Hamilton completed a McLaren 1-2 while Nico Rosberg collected his second successive podium, finishing third for Mercedes GP (full results).

Rain arrived as expected but at the start wasn’t heavy enough for drivers to switch to even intermediates. However all that changed within a lap as Tonio Liuzzi spun out his Force India collecting Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso and Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber, effecting the first Safety Car period. That meant a whole lot of drivers pitted for intermediates but a clutch of them stayed out on dry, soft tyres. These were Rosberg, Button, Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov who climbed up the order as a result.

The biggest loser in this confusion had been Sebastien Vettel. The pole sitter had to wait till Mark Webber changed his tyres but the Aussie got delayed as a jack got stuck and both the cars dropped down the order. Vettel was slow off the starting line as well but later it was revealed that Fernando Alonso had jumped the start. He was punished with a drive through penalty and in all ended up making five trips to the pits through the race.
He still finished sixth in what was a major recovery for the Ferrari while team mate Felipe Massa struggled with the conditions and could only manage ninth. That was partly also down to Alonso overtaking Massa when they pitted together later in the race and the Brazilian had to wait in line.

Vettel and Red Bull suffered more as the move to intermediates backfired as the rain stopped and all of them pitted again for dry tyres. While coming in as well as exiting the pitlane, Vettel jostled with McLaren and their exit incident was investigated after the race. Both were surprisingly exonerated although one feels Hamilton should have been punished for not backing off even after Vettel had the clear advantage.

Rain was back by Lap 20 and Nico found the track too slippery, yielding his lead to Button. He is still a winner in any book for his illustrious team-mate struggled no end to finish only tenth. He did defend very well after being under attack continuously but the result isn’t what he would have been hoping for when he decided to come back. The whole grid pitted for intermediates once again on Lap 22 as Jaime Alguersari lost his front wing in a collision with Bruno Senna. The safety car came out surprisingly and the front-runners advantage was reduced. Hamilton went on a charge after the car came in and did not rest until he was within 1.5 seconds off Button, shortly after which the race ended.

Indian interests took a beating today. Force India had only one car running after the first lap and although Adrian Sutil drove valiantly he could only finish tenth. One thinks this is in part down to the development the other cars have brought, in particular Renault, whose new front wing is believed to be the key to their success since Bahrain. Straight-line speed alone will not get Force India ahead of its competitors and that is something the team needs to rectify if they are to challenge in Europe. Meanwhile Karun Chandhok had an awful weekend. The problem with his car was identified to be with hydraulics and he started from the pitlane. During the race, the best he could do with a poor car was keep out of the way of the front-runners especially with all the spray from the track.

It was indeed a timely result for the Woking team, for the entire grid is more or less expected to catch up with the F-duct systems by the next race in Barcelona. What would be most satisfactory indeed would be that the Red Bulls for once looked beatable and that will be a question mark for Christian Horner and team to answer as the world awaits the European season to begin in three weeks’ time.