Sebastian Vettel leading Mark Webber for the RedBull on-Two - Photograph: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Sebastian Vettel lead from turn 1 at Sepang and never looked back to claim his first win of the season and gave RedBull the 1-2 finish that they so desperately wanted and expected to get earlier then round 3 this year.

Mark Webber was on pole for the race, however he had wheel spin off the line and didn’t fight too hard to cover his line as Vettel passed him into the braking area. Mark had a beter run into turn 2 and fought back a little bit but in the end Vetel had the drive and maintained his lead. From then on it was pretty much a processional race with Vettel, Webber and Rosberg leading the pack for the rest of the afternoon.

“I had a good start and got the tow from Mark, I took the chance I had in Turn 1, said Vettel … We had a magnificent car and the key was to pace yourself. It’s a good result after two races where we didn’t finish where we want to be.”

The rain that was predicted for this race never eventuated. It was the first dry afternoon all weekend and it meant that the conditions for the drivers were extreemely difficult and hot. It also meant there were no safety car periods and teams such as McLaren and Ferrari who were hoping for changeable weather to make their way up the grid weren’t able to make the gains they possibly would have hoped had the rain fallen.

Nico Rosberg had a trouble free race and just had to follow the RedBull procession from start to finish. P3 for Rosberg never really seemed to be under any threat and all he had to do was to steer the car home to claim the final place on the podium.

Hamilton and Mass did a great job climbing up form the back of the grid to finish 6th and 7th and claim some needed points for the team. However it was both their team-mates who provided entertainment in the dying stages of the race.

Button was caught by Alonso at the end and there was a fierce battle for position. Alonso looked to take Button several times but in the end wasn’t able to make up the pace out of the corners due to a problem with the car on the downshift which set Alonso up badly for a quick exit. The final couple of laps however proved disaterous for Alonso as the Ferrari’s engine gave up and blew, forcing Alonso to retire from the race.

Jaime Alguersuari put in a superstar drive and scored points for finishing in ninth place. He had some great on-track battles with Hulkenberg and Petrov. Jamie showed that he has loads of potential and is able to perform very well under pressure.

Lotus are happy with one of their cars finishing the race. Jarno Trulli finished the race in last place for Lotus, but it was a good result for the team to finish the race in front of a home crowd. The result however was upstaged by Hispania Racing (HRT) who managed to get both their cars to the finish to claim 15th and 16th place just ahead of the Lotus.

Massa’s lead in the championship after round3 is just 2 points clear of Sebastian Vettel who is in equal 2nd place int he championship with Alonso, both drivers are on 37 points.

The final race classifications as well as championship standings are below:

Pos  Driver       Team                  Gap
 1.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault
 2.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      + 4.8s
 3.  Rosberg      Mercedes              + 13.5s
 4.  Kubica       Renault               + 18.5s
 5.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  + 21.0s
 6.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      + 23.4s
 7.  Massa        Ferrari               + 27.0s
 8.  Button       McLaren-Mercedes      + 37.9s
 9.  Alguersuari  Toro Rosso-Ferrari    + 1m10.6s
10.  Hulkenberg   Williams              + 1m13.3s
11.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    + 1m18.9s
12.  Barrichello  Williams-Cosworth     + 1 lap
13.  Alonso       Ferrari               + 2 laps
14.  Di Grassi    Virgin-Cosworth       + 3 laps
15.  Chandhok     Hispania-Cosworth     + 3 laps
16.  Senna        Hispania-Cosworth     + 4 laps
17.  Trulli       Lotus-Cosworth        + 5 laps

Not classified/retirements:

     Kovalainen   Lotus-Cosworth        46 laps
     Petrov       Renault               32 laps
     Liuzzi       Force India-Mercedes  12 laps
     Schumacher   Mercedes              9 laps
     Kobayashi    Sauber-Ferrari        8 laps
     Glock        Virgin-Cosworth       2 laps
     De la Rosa   Sauber-Ferrari        0 laps

World Championship standings, round 3:

Drivers:                   Constructors:
 1.  Massa         39       1.  Ferrari                    76
 2.  Vettel        37       2.  McLaren-Mercedes           66
 3.  Alonso        37       3.  Red Bull-Renault           61
 4.  Button        35       4.  Mercedes                   44
 5.  Rosberg       35       5.  Renault                    20
 6.  Hamilton      31       6.  Force India-Mercedes       18
 7.  Kubica        30       7.  Williams-Cosworth           6
 8.  Webber        24       8.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          2
 9.  Sutil         10
10.  Schumacher     9
11.  Liuzzi         8
12.  Barrichello    5
13.  Alguersuari    2
14.  Hulkenberg     1