Vettel gets Red Bull's first race win and 1-2!

NEW DELHI: Sebastian Vettel did it for Toro Rosso in a very wet Italian Grand Prix at Monza last year and now the young German sensation has done it again, leading Mark Webber to a spectacular maiden 1-2 for the Red Bull Racing outfit.
As the cars set out for the first lap of the Chinese Grand Prix today, it wasn't pole sitter Sebastian Vettel leading the field into turn one, in fact, it wasn't any of the other 19 drivers either. Right up ahead of the field was German driver Bernd Maylander in the gorgeous Mercedes AMG safety car and it stayed that way for a good 8 laps. The reason for the safety car was the torrential rain that had been lashing out in full fury at the Shanghai circuit since morning, making the rescheduled Chinese GP a wet race all the way.
The three front runners had lined up light fuel loads in the hope of short first stints on the super soft tyres, but with the rain all the strategising went literally down the drain. Out came all the cars on the extreme wet tyres and as the safety car pulled in to officially start the race, it was Vettel who got a jump on the rest of the field and continued pulling away, demonstrating the superior design of Adrian Newey's RB5. Vettel was out of everyone's reach by the end of the first racing lap itself and he led an unchallenged race all the way to the end - through more heavy rain, another safety car period and a few yellow flags.
Vettel was followed around the track by team mate Mark Webber who had a couple of off-track excursions but managed to stay in control to keep Jenson Button down in third - the two of them having a great battle just before their final pit stop. Great drive put in there from all three podium finishers. But the move of the race has to be from Sebastian Vettel when he passed Jenson Button with about 15 laps to go. The Red Bull driver had already finished his last pit stop and come out on track behind Button in third place who was still to pit. Vettel had no reason to challenge Jenson for position on track, but the true-blue racer that he is, he had a go at the Brawn GP car and in a clean move, emerged ahead.
Rubens Barrichello crossed the line in fourth and nearly lost it on the last corner with Heiki Kovalainen hounding him down in fifth. Lewis Hamilton brought the second McLaren home in 6th after a topsy turvy race that saw him climb up through the grid only to repeatedly spin out and fall back down again. Timo Glock and Sebastien Buemi picked up the last of the points for Toyota and Scuderia Toro Rosso respectively.
Some of those points could have easily belonged to Force India this weekend with Adrian Sutil running a strong 6th place with seven laps to go when he lost control, spun out and went into the barriers - a dismal end to a hopeful Shanghai race for Vijay Mallya's team. Second place qualifier Fernando Alonso couldn't keep it together in the race and could manage only 9th followed by the sole finishing Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen making up the top ten. Ferrari yet again failed to score any points making this their worst start to a season in over a decade.
The action moves to Bahrain next week - which has been a track dominated by Ferrari for the past few years. Will the Scuderia be able to spring back there? Or will it be another race dominated by the new big wigs of F1 - Brawn GP and Red Bull Racing? Catch all the action right here on Times of India Racing, powered by ZigWheels.com.