Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix, after starting from the pole, and remaining in the first place for the whole race without serious difficulty. McLaren's Jenson Button finished in 2nd place 3.2 seconds behind the German, as Renault made another podium finish with Nick Heidfeld in 3rd place. Although Red Bull seemed to have problems using the KERS system once more, after the first few laps, it did not seem to have any impact in Vettel's performance. However it seemed to have an impact on Mark Webber's race who finished in 4th place, failing to pass Heidfeld during the last lap of the race and achieve a podium finish. Ferrari's Felipe Massa finished in 5th place with teammate Fernando Alonso in 6th place, after a collision with Lewis Hamilton in the fight for the 3rd place, resulting in losing his front wing and falling in 7th place at that moment.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finished in 7th place, as Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi after starting from 10th place. Seven-time world champion, Michael Schumaher finished in the points, in 9th place, with Paul di Resta completing the first 10 places in 10th place.
At the start of the race Vettel kept his place but the surprise came form the Renault team. Nick Haidfeld started the race from 6th place and Vitaly Petrov form 8th place. However after the first two corners Heidfeld was in 2nd place behind Sebastian Vettel and Vitaly Petrov in 5th place. Vettel may have made a good start, however his teammate Mark Webber started without using the KERS system, resulting in dropping in 10th place. In lap 14 rain drops started to fall but there was no rain and fortunately no problems due to weather conditions. Most of the race continued with no turnovers. During the second half of the race Vitaly Petrov was forced to retire, after he damaged his Renault. Fernando Alonso found himself much faster from Lewis Hamilton during laps 44 to 46, but failed to pass him in a fight for the 3rd place. In lap 46 Alonso hit Hamilton and lost his front wing. After a pit stop changing his wing, he dropped to 7th place. Hamilton however also made another pit stop, 3 laps before the end, which dropped him behind the Spaniard after all, in 7th place and Alonso finished in 6th place.
The race results are as follows:
01. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h37:39.832
02. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 3.261
03. Heidfeld Renault + 25.075
04. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 26.384
05. Massa Ferrari + 36.958
06. Alonso Ferrari + 37.248
07. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 49.957
08. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1:07.239
09. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:24.896
10. Di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1:31.563
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:45.000
12. Rosberg Mercedes + 1 lap
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
14. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
15. Kovalainen Lotus-Renault + 1 lap
16. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps
17. Petrov Renault + 4 laps
Ret Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 47
Ret D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 43
Ret Trulli Lotus-Renault 32
Ret Perez Sauber-Ferrari 24
Ret Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 23
Ret Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 15
Ret Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 9
