Car blogs

• Front-running Red Bulls collide to let British pair through
• Mark Webber survives to take third and stay top

Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button produced a British one-two here today that may have owed much to what appeared to be a suicide pact between the Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel but there can be no doubt that it has revitalised the McLaren team just when it was in danger of becoming demoralised.

While the Ferraris and Mercedes were again disappointing it was only Hamilton and Button who looked capable of taking on the power of the Milton Keynes-based Red Bulls today.

Despite McLaren's considerable efforts, Webber and Vettel were still poised to finish first and second until, giving the distinct impression that they had been drinking too much Red Bull, the drivers came together in the 40th lap to hand Hamilton his first victory in 10 races.

After the clash of the Red Bulls the only thing that could stop the British pair was another bout of internecine war and that duly happened on laps 48 and 49, the first truly wheel-to-wheel, Ben-Hur moment we have seen between the McLaren drivers in a season that has mostly lived up to all the heady hype.

Button passed Hamilton and was immediately retaken. The team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, whose team now lead the constructors' championship by a single point, said tonight: "It was heart-stopping. We want the drivers to race each other and you've got to let them race to a certain degree."

McLaren had appeared to miss their best opportunity on the 15th lap, when Webber and Hamilton both came in for a pit-stop. But McLaren's wheel change was a poor one and Hamilton not only lost ground to Webber but was also passed by Vettel. At that moment the result looked predictable and ominous for McLaren and everyone else.

Hamilton, who dedicated the race to his father Anthony, who celebrates his 50th birthday tomorrow, said afterwards: "Me and Jenson had had a good little battle. He got me on the outside into turn 13 and then fortunately I was able to get him back into turn one, so that was definitely unexpected. It was a really fair battle with him. But there was a miscommunication with the team. They told me to save fuel and I was slowing down to keep to that target when all of a sudden Jenson was right up my tail."

The genuine goodwill that exists between these two drivers was shown in the slow-down lap when Button said on his car radio: "That was excellent, well done, Lewis."

Tim Goss, McLaren's chief engineer, explained that both drivers had been given instructions to conserve their fuel. "We were running quite an aggressive fuel strategy to get good pace early in the race. We gave both drivers identical target lap times. And as you can see from the evidence Jenson managed to close on Lewis."

There was a nice moment of misunderstanding shortly after the race when Webber was telling Hamilton about the move Vettel had made on him. Hamilton said: "Mark said something about the move and I said, 'He did the same thing to me'. And Jenson thought it was about him. But I said, 'No, no, I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about the situation when I was trying to overtake Vettel.'

This was probably the fourth outstanding race of the seven this season and there has been only one stinker, the opener in Bahrain. The result leaves Webber still leading the title race, five points ahead of Button, with Hamilton up to third; Vettel has slipped back to fifth.

It is Ferrari's failure in their 800th Formula One race which continues to be the biggest disappointment of the season. Fernando Alonso started 12th and finished eighth while Felipe Massa finished seventh, one place ahead of his grid position. At one point Alonso was losing ground to the tyro Renault driver Vitaly Petrov. The team have not developed their car and appear to be losing further ground with every race.

Michael Schumacher edged ahead of his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, but this was a race in which the top fou

Tags: Formula One, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, McLaren, Red Bull, Motor sport, Sport, The Guardian, News

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Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button in British one-two for McLaren was originally published by Sport: Motor sport | guardian.co.uk. Read the full story by clicking here.