Young Vettel shines in rain-soaked Chinese GP, ending Brawn's dominance

Another damp race has punctuated only the third race of the season. But though the drivers were hard-pressed trying to see the car in front of them, viewers of yesterday's Shanghai Grand Prix were treated to some tantalizing driving and spectacular spins that were took place throughout the race.

Starting from pole, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel showed everyone his maturity in carefully maneuvering his car around the wet track and his killer instinct that eventually saw him cross the finish line in first place. A result no one could have predicted during Friday's practice session. His mechanics worked tirelessly throughout the night surviving only on two hours of rest to prep his car for qualifying the next day. Running only half as many laps as his team-mate, Vettel still managed to clock the fastest lap with race fuel on board to start from pole.

The rain-drenched race started from behind the safety car which led the field for the first eight laps. Fernando Alonso had fueled light for a quick getaway but quickly found his strategy foiled so took the opportunity to come into the pit to take on some fuel and a tire change instead. Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, who started off the grid in ninth, quickly found himself catching and overtaking eight placed Kimi Raikkonen in his Ferrari and defending his position against a quick Felipe Massa. Massa however had his race ended abruptly when his car lost drive and came to a silent stop on the 21st lap.

The safety car made another brief appearance on the 18th lap when BMW's Robert Kubica, struggling with his car's setup the whole weekend, ploughed right into the back of Jarno Trulli's Toyota at turn 16, wrecking the back of his car and ruling him out from the race. Kubica though had his front wing replaced and managed to continue the race, though only finishing in 13th.

The other Mercedes of Heikki Kovalainen, who did not get the new aero package his team-mate was fitted for Shanghai, managed to claw his way up the field from 12th to 5th. Hamilton finished the race just behind Heikki even though he spun and found himself on the run-off areas a handful of times during the race.

Another agonising race for Vijay Mallya, team principal of Force India, seeing Adrian Sutil on track to scoring the teams first two championship points, only to lose control of his car in front of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the closing laps of the race.

The race also provided Mark Webber, the veteran in the Red Bull stable, with his best result in his entire Formula 1 career. "I'm hoping to go one step better in the future, and this goes a long way towards it" said the Australian after coming in second behind his team-mate.