Button leads McLaren 1-2 in wet Chinese Grand Prix

Jenson Button secured his second victory of the 2010 season after taking full advantage of changeable weather conditions in China this afternoon. Two safety car periods and continual rain from one-third distance provided for a chaotic race, with Lewis Hamilton taking second place subject to a post-race stewards’ inquiry.

With rain in the air, the race got underway as planned in dry conditions and Fernando Alonso jumped straight into the lead from third place, albeit thanks to a jump start for which he soon received a drive-through penalty. However, a first-lap collision involving Tonio Liuzzi, Sébastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi brought out the safety car for three laps, prompting many drivers to pit for intermediate tyres as the rain started falling more heavily.

Vettel leads Red Bull front row in China

Red Bull sent an emphatic message to their F1 rivals when they locked out the front row of the grid for the Chinese Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel (1:34.558) hooking up a fine final lap to pip team mate Mark Webber (1:24.806) to top spot.

With the F1 paddock speculating since the start of the season that the team had a ride height control system on its car to explain its 100% pole position record, the FIA have recently issued a rule clarification banning such devices. As Vettel crossed the line Red Bull team principal Christian Horner shouted on the team radio, “Who needs ride height control!”

Mclaren top times on Friday in Shanghai

Lewis Hamilton overtook team-mate Jenson Button at the top of the practice timesheets during the second session in China this afternoon, posting a time of 1m35.217s to end the day as the fastest man on-track. The Briton took to the top of the standings with just over half way gone in the session, going half a second quicker than Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, and although he failed to improve for the rest of the session, he remained fastest.

Rosberg later improved his own time to come within a quarter of a second of the McLaren, setting a 1m35.465s seven minutes after Hamilton took over at the top. Jenson Button had to be happy with third place on a time of 1m35.593s, and was fortunate to finish ahead of Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher who was less than a hundredth of a second adrift in fourth on a 1m35.602s.

Driver Quotes after Chinese Grand Prix

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli on their dramatic collision; Force India’s Adrian Sutil on being less than six laps from scoring his team’s first points; and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber on their spectacular one-two victory. All 20 drivers and senior team personnel report back on Sunday’s race…

Q & A with Martin Whitmarsh

Q. Is Ron Dennis’s announcement related in anyway to the events of the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix?

Martin Whitmarsh: Ron has said that it is his decision and it is not related to an F1 issue. He has decided that it is time to move to a new challenge, and that is what he has done.

Q. Did he not do that when he handed over the team principal role to you?

MW: The first phase of that was to relinquish his role as team principal, but he was still CEO and he was still my boss at that time. So it was a further step of what he announced in March.