Button fires for McLaren

Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was fifth,with Williams Pastor Maldonado crashing heavily into a wall on the final lap while on the tail of the Spaniard. Saubers Kamui Kobayashi inherited sixth from Maldonado,and team mate Sergio Perez was eighth after starting last on the grid. They were separated by Lotuss Kimi Raikkonen.

Toro Rossos Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo was ninth to claim points in his first home race,overtaking team mate Jean-Eric Vergne on the final sequence of corners. Vergne was shuffled down to 11th,with Force Indias Paul di Resta snatching the last points-paying position in 10th.

Button got off the line better than Hamilton and immediately took the lead,extending the gap on his team mate to a maximum of 11.8 seconds on lap 23 of 58. However,that buffer was negated when the Caterham of Vitaly Petrov stopped on the main straight and brought out the safety car.

The biggest problem was the safety car. As soon as the safety car comes out and its six oclock in the evening,its difficult to keep temperature in the tires. I was a little on edge but I was able to keep the heat in the tires, Button said.

Mastering restart

Button mastered the restart,opening a 3.5-second lead on Vettel after just one lap and comfortably holding on for victory. Vettel leapfrogged Hamilton thanks to clever Red Bull strategy,holding off on a pit stop as Hamilton went in,thereby taking over second place behind the safety car. The German was tacked onto the back of Button,and it appeared he could pull off a victory that had seemed McLarens for the taking.

I thought I would be in a good position to have a shot at Jenson but I didnt. He was too quick two corners and he was gone, Vettel said. There was no way we could have stayed with him he completely deserved to win today.

A downcast Hamilton saw little to be enthused about in third position. It was a bit of a tough day,but theres plenty more races to do so I just have to keep my head up, Hamilton said. It was still a positive to come here with good pace and hopefully we can take that on to the next race.

Lotuss Romain Grosjean started a surprise third on the grid,but was shuffled back quickly after a poor start and by lap three was gone after breaking his right front axle bumping wheels with Maldonado. Mercedes Michael Schumacher held third place for the opening nine laps,but ran wide over the grass at turn one under pressure from Vettel and soon after retired with a gear problem.

Weve never had an issue with the gearbox all winter long,so its a bit strange, Schumacher said. But theyre prototype cars,you can never have total reliability.

Force India earns a point

Paul di Resta helped Sahara Force India open the season with a point,although it was a disappointing start for Nico Hulkenberg,whose race lasted less than a lap.

Hulkenberg,who had a good ninth position on the grid,was hit from the back in the opening lap,which damaged his suspension and led to early retirement. Resta,who started 15th,gained five places to finish in top-10 and start the season with a point.

Its always nice to start the season with a point,but it was not looking too promising until the last few laps when my engineer told me that I was catching the cars ahead of me. I had saved quite a bit of KERS for the last corner,which helped me get a good run on Vergne and beat him to the line for tenth. So it was a pretty exciting final lap, the Scot said.

Hulkenberg said he was unlucky to miss out. Im still not really sure what happened8230; Its such a shame because I had made a great start,moved up a couple of positions and then I just felt somebody tap me from behind. he said.