The race started normally, with no sign of rain at all. The weather has been clear during the whole racing session. All top ten drivers plus Schumacher on 11th place of the grid, started their race on soft tyres.
Right on the start, Sebastian Vettel made one of his usual mistakes. After a bad start, he tried to block Fernando Alonso, leaving all the way in front of Felipe Massa clear. As a result, he lost his first place to the Brazilian, and also second place to Fernando Alonso after he run wide on turn one.
Lewis Hamilton took advantage of the confusion during turn one and passed his teammate for P5. A few moments later he also passed Mark Webber, to take P4.
The race continued and and the only change on the top has been the one between Jenson Button and Mark Webber. The Briton made a very fast pit stop (changed tyres in just 3sec!) and managed to get back on track in front of the Australian Red Bull driver.
The situation remained unchanged for a while, with Webber trying to push Button, while Button was trying to control the Australian in order to protect his teammate. Some time later, Webber was ordered to slow down as he was facing problems with his oil consumption. Hamilton also had to slow down a bit to save fuel. Along with him Jenson Button also dropped his pace, and played his number 2 driver role pretty well. He was clearly faster than Lewis but he never tried to push him, although he had a fresher set of tyres and no consumption problems.
On the leading team a similar thing happened. Alonso was obviously quicker than his leading teammate, and in order to avoid battle and a possible desaster, Ferrari team "ordered" Massa to let Alonso pass, by having Rob Smedley telling Massa: "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understand that message?". The Brazilian accelerated slowly a few turns later, letting Alonso take the lead safely and easily.
Sebastian Vettel upped his pace at that time to attack the Brazilian but Massa managed to control him and kept his place. The situation remained unchanged until the end.
The race results are as follows :
01. Alonso Ferrari 1h28:38.866
02. Massa Ferrari + 4.196
03. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 5.121
04. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 26.896
05. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 29.482
06. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 43.606
07. Kubica Renault + 1 lap
08. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
09. Schumacher Mercedes + 1 lap
10. Petrov Renault + 1 lap
11. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
12. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
13. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap
14. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
16. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 2 laps
17. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 2 laps
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 3 laps
19. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps
Did Not Finish
Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 58
Di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 51
Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 20
Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 4
Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 2
