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The 6th edition of the Chinese Grand Prix got underway at the $240 million Shanghai International Circuit today, with no driver ever having won the race twice in its brief history. That bit of history didn't change this year as Sebastian Vettel showed that he is the true rain-mister, completely dominating the race from start to finish to pick-up his second ever Grand Prix win. In what has been a good omen for past champions, three of the five race winners did go on to win the world championship that year.

With the rain following the drivers from Sepang to Shanghai, the race stewards decided to start the race in a similar vein to the finish at Malaysia, behind the safety car. The decision was a good one keeping in mind the incredibly dangerous first three corners, which as shown in the track snapshot see the driver turning around 360 degrees.

As boos from the fans around the circuit changed to cheers, the safety car did finally head into the pits after lap 8 to signal the start of the Chinese Grand Prix with Sebastian Vettel starting from pole position. Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Adrian Sutil came into the pits to throw in tons of fuel into their car while everyone was going round and round behind the safety car. Alonso's stop put the two Red Bulls one behind the other at the start of the field and moved championship leader Jenson Button up to 3rd. (read more about yesterday's qualifying round)

Straight off the bat, Lewis Hamilton made the Ferrari look mediocre passing Kimi Raikkonen to take 6th place. Rookie Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Buemi took 5th place from veteran Jarno Trulli.

Both the Red Bulls headed to the pits on successive laps (14th & 15th) to leave the Brawns of Button and Barrichello at the top of the order. Robert Kubica meanwhile earned the ire of the Chinese public by smashing into the back of Jarno Trulli to bring the safety car back out.

Ever the tactician Ross Brawn brought both his cars in to refuel to save track time. Vettel was lucky to still be in the race when green-horn Buemi grazed the back of his car behind the safety car. Felipe Massa's race ended early when his engine stalled while behind the safety car. Unfortunate for Massa, he had worked his way up to third.

After five more uneventful laps under the safety car, the race was back on. Fortunately that was the last we saw of that piece of machinery for the day.

Button and Mark Webber had a ding-dong battle for second place in the middle of the race, as both drivers pushed their cars to the limit. Another round of pit-stops later and the top six were Vettel, Webber, Button, Buemi, Barrichello and Hamilton.

Almost unnoticed, Adrian Sutil for Force India climbed into the top eight, in a position to score the team's first Formula 1 points ever!

With 10 laps to go, Sutil seemed to have the 'force' with him, as Formula 1 fans all over the world got behind the perennial underdogs hoping that today would be their day.

With the images of Kimi Raikkonen crashing into the back of Sutil at Monaco last season seemingly a distant memory, Sutil climbed a spot higher into 7th after Buemi went into the pits for his last stop. A log jam behind him, as Heidfeld, Glock and Alonso chased Sutil as the battle for the last two point scoring positions intensified.

Hamilton had a moment of madness as he spun around, but kept it together, dropping a place letting the Force India climb into a dream 6th spot.

But the fairytale was never to be as disaster struck. Sutil went into a corner too hot, under pressure from a chasing Hamilton, and crashed into the tyre wall with just five laps to go.

The rest of the race went through without further incident, ending with a memorable 1-2 for the Red Bull racing team. An incredibly humble Vettel on the radio to his team had this to say: "Yes! Yes, we made it. Thank you for working so hard on the car. It was a dream to drive today. Together we made it. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much."

In the post race press conference, the excited German added, "We had to push hard in the beginning to get away from the pack and we succeeded. There was a lot of aquaplaning. Sometimes you were just keeping the car on the circuit. I think I had the best conditions, but it was still extremely difficult - especially in the last corner. It's my second win - and the second in the wet. Now maybe we can have some more rain!"

Personally, Sebastian, think Formula 1 fans all over the world are pretty fed up of the rain!

Jenson Button still comfortably on top of the leaderboard was satisfied with his podium finish, "It was basically a lake on the last corner and you couldn't brake. It was pretty crazy. Every lap, you thought you were going to throw the car off. To finish the race is an achievement and to finish on the podium is fantastic. We couldn't catch the Red Bulls, but they were extremely quick."

The Formula 1 racing calendar continues to move along in 5th gear, as we head to Sakhir next week for what should be a highly entertaining Bahrain Grand Prix.

Race Results

1. S Vettel, Red Bull
2. M Webber, Red Bull
3. J Button, Brawn
4. R Barrichello, Brawn
5. H Kovalainen, McLaren
6. L Hamilton, McLaren
7. T Glock, Toyota
8. S Buemi, Toro Rosso

File Photograph Copyright:  Hugh Ujhazy 2009 - All Rights Reserved

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