McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton took his maiden victory of 2010 after leading team-mate Jenson Button home in a thrilling race at the Istanbul Park this afternoon. Red Bull’s Mark Webber looked set for a third consecutive victory until a controversial collision with Sebastian Vettel going into turn 12 on lap 40 as the German came through to take the lead handed McLaren an easy 1-2 finish.

After keeping his lead away from pole position at the start, Webber was unable to open a gap to second-placed Lewis Hamilton who managed to hold onto second place on the first lap despite starting on the dirty side of the grid. A quick pitstop by third-placed Vettel allowed the German to leapfrog the Briton into second, and although the Red Bulls were unable to open any gap to Hamilton they looked set for another 1-2 finish.

That was until lap 40 when, after closing in on Webber for a couple of laps, Vettel got the measure on Webber coming out of turn 10. After coming alongside and getting slightly ahead of the Australian, Vettel then collided with his team-mate just before the breaking zone for turn 12 as he edged towards the centre of the track. The contact put Vettel out on the spot, but more crucially it handed their main rivals McLaren an extra 16 points as Hamilton and Button vaulted into first and second.

With a significant gap to Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher in fourth, Webber was easily able to hang onto third after pitting for a new front wing, but will be counting the losses of a near-certain second place. After taking over at the head of the field, Hamilton and Button had a battle of their own on laps 48 and 49 when the reigning champion overtook his team-mate at turn 12, only to be repassed going into turn 1 on the following lap after a poor exit onto the main straight.

With both McLarens saving fuel in the closing stages of the race as a result of their intense effort to keep pace with Red Bull, Hamilton duly cruised to his first Grand Prix win of 2010, taking the chequered flag 2.5 seconds clear of Button. Webber limped home to third 24 seconds adrift while Schumacher’s confidence received another boost with his second fourth place finish in three races. Team-mate Nico Rosberg completed the top five just a second further behind.

Ferrari’s poor qualifying pace translated into an equally dismal race performance, with Felipe Massa consigned to a seventh-place finish on one of his favourite circuits. Renault’s Robert Kubica finished four seconds up the road of the Brazilian is sixth, while Fernando Alonso had to wait until the final five laps to finally find a way by Vitaly Petrov in the second Renault. Unfortunately for the Russian however, contact between the pair gave him a puncture, costing him his second points finish of the year.

Petrov’s poor luck allowed BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi score his team’s first point of the season in tenth, despite losing ninth to Force India’s Adrian Sutil late in the race due to excessive tyre wear.

In the championship tables, Webber’s third place keeps him in the lead of the drivers’ championship, with the Aussie now holding a five-point lead on reigning champion Jenson Button, Vettel’s non-finish drops him to fifth, 15 points off his team-mate, while Hamilton’s win promotes him to third. In the constructors’ race, McLaren regain the lead by a solitary point on 172, followed by Red Bull on 171 and Ferrari on 146.

Here are the full results

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h28:47.620
 2.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +     2.645
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    24.285
 4.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    31.110
 5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    32.266
 6.  Kubica        Renault                    +    32.824
 7.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    36.635
 8.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    46.544
 9.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +    49.029
10.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:05.650
11.  De la Rosa    Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:05.944
12.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:07.800
13.  Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
14.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
15.  Petrov        Renault                    +     1 lap
16.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
17.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
18.  Glock         Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
19.  Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +    3 laps