Button seals McLaren 1-2 in the rain
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McLaren driver Jenson Button of Britain celebrates as he wins the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit yesterday. |
World champion Jenson Button calmly steered through the chaos of a wet Chinese Grand Prix for his second win of the season yesterday, leading home Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren one-two.
The 30-year-old Briton, who took the lead in the overall standings after celebrating the ninth win of his career, yelled "We really earned that one!" on his team radio as he crossed the line.
"For me, it's my best victory," a grinning Button, who had started fifth on the grid, told reporters in Shanghai. "It was very tough conditions and the great thing is our pace was good. It wasn't just the luck of calling the weather."
Hamilton carved his way through the field from 12th on lap four to finish 1.530 seconds behind his compatriot in Shanghai in the first British one-two since 1999.
The 25-year-old's aggressive drive included a clash with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel in the pit lane and a stewards' investigation resulted in reprimands for both drivers for dangerous driving.
"I had quite an eventful race," said Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, who embraced Button. "I fought my way through and we both did a tremendous job."
German Nico Rosberg secured his second successive third place for Mercedes with Spain's Fernando Alonso, who earned a drive-through penalty for a jump start, finishing fourth for Ferrari.
Button now has 60 points overall, 10 clear of Rosberg with Hamilton and Alonso a point further back in third.
McLaren leads the constructors' standings with 109 points to Ferrari's 90.
Pole-sitter Vettel, who won the last race in Malaysia and in China last year, managed sixth behind Robert Kubica's Renault, leaving the Shanghai race still without a repeat winner after seven years.
"Today was very chaotic and in the end to take sixth can be quite important," said Vettel.
Renault's Vitaly Petrov passed both Michael Schumacher of Mercedes and the Red Bull of Mark Webber to take an impressive seventh place in the Russian's first finished Formula One race.
Alonso's premature start, a safety car for a three-car pile up on the first corner, heavy rain and another safety car later contributed to an entertaining but chaotic race.
"I think we stopped five times to change the tires," said twice world champion Alonso, who muscled his car past Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa as both headed into the pits.
Rosberg emerged in the lead after the first few laps followed by Button and Kubica with the race favorite Red Bulls and Hamilton scrambling to change tires to match the conditions.
Hamilton showed through his uncompromising clash with Vettel at both the entrance and exit to the pit lane that he was by no means cowed by criticism of his driving in Malaysia.
Button overtook Rosberg on the hairpin before the start-finish straight and made his first pit stop immediately afterwards, still getting back out in front just before the second safety car on lap 20 bunched up the field again.
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