(RacingWire) - On-again, off-again rain showers proved to make for an interesting Chinese Grand Prix. The changing conditions forced teams change tires several times shaking up the field as the race unfolded.
Defending World Champion Jensen Button held off a charging Louis Hamilton to win the 2010 Chinese Grand Prix.
The McLaren duo worked the tire strategy and navigated the wet track well enough to keep ahead of the pack for most of the second half of the race.
"At the end of the race when we put the inters on, the new set, I felt really good," said Button. "The car felt great and I wasn’t pushing the tyres too much. I could see I was pulling a gap to Lewis and then it started racing again. I made a mistake at the hairpin and ran wide and from then on I just could not get any heat in the tyres and every bit of water I touched I aquaplaned, so I really had to back off."
"At the beginning with the weather it wasn’t easy making the call on when to change the tyres," Hamilton said. "I chose very, very late, when I was half-way round the last corner and clearly it wasn’t the right choice. I fought my way through, we both did a tremendous job and it is really down to an awesome job the team are doing. We have been working very hard, so it is great for the team."
Mercedes' Nico Rosberg drove to a third place finish.
The race had an auspicious start with Fernando Alonso jumping from the second row to the lead before the first turn. Replays showed that Alonso's fantastic start was aided by the Spaniard jumping the start.
Alonso was forced give up the lead to serve a drive-through penalty. Despite five pit stops Alonso recovered from the penalty to finish fourth.
The rain made for great racing throughout the field keeping fans on the edge of their seats.
There intermediate wet tire was the tire of choice but the short life of the tires forced teams to stop more frequently for tires. Some teams stopped as many as five times to keep up with tire life issues.
Renault F1's Vitor Petrov had the best race of his short F1 career. Petrov finished seventh ahead of seven time World Champion Michael Schumacher who finished tenth.
Heikke Kovalainen was the highest finisher among the new F1 teams. Kovalainen finished 14th in his Lotus.
