McLaren Mercedes may not have a great package as yet with the MP4-24, but Hamilton today proved himself yet again with an impressive drive on a day few thought a top ten result let alone points could be possible.

Zoom The tradional problems at the very first turn

Fernando Alonso finished in sixth position, later to become fifth, after a quiet day by his very high standards. Indeed it was Nelson Piquet who led the way for the Renault team for much of the race before locking his brakes and spinning into retirement following the first safety car period. It was a shame for the under pressure Brazilian racer who raced well until that point.

Nico Rosberg could well have finished in second position in his Williams Toyota but a slow pitstop and then a problem with the FW31 in the closing stages saw him drop down to seventh position at the chequered flag. Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima ran well in the points in the early stages before clipping the kerbs exiting turn four and spinning his Williams into the left hand side retaining wall and out of the race.

Nakajima‘s accident played nicely into the hands of the Ferrari team as the safety car was deployed his accident. Staring fifth and sixth, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen opted to complete the first stint on the super-soft option tyre - a tyre rapid for a few laps and then quickly falling off the pace.

Following early pitstops, the safety car closed up the field and it looked for a time that both Massa and Raikkonen were back in contention for a podium position. However it was not to be for the famous Italian team as Massa slowed with a mechanical problem late in the race and was forced to retire while Raikkonen dropped his F60 and made contact with the retaining wall. Following his third stop Raikkonen ran at the back until the final safety car and then parked the car.

While it was a tale of woes for Ferrari, rookie Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi had a fantastic debut for the Ferrari-powered team. Buemi battled hard with Alonso for much of the race and didn’t put a wheel wrong as he defended his position. It is fitting that the Swiss racer earned points with his fine seventh place finish.

Sebastien Bourdais finished eighth in the second Toro Rosso and claimed the final championship point ahead of Adrian Sutil in the leading Force India. Nick Heidfeld was forced to pit at the end of the first lap with a cut tyre courtesy of Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello making contact at the very first turn.