Ferrari's Fernando Alonso rode a perfect race to win the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix, with Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen coming second and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton completing the podium places in third.
World champion and drivers' championship points leader Sebastian Vettel could only manage fourth, albeit after starting from ninth in the grid.
Jenson Button of McLaren came in fifth, with Alonso's Ferrari teammate taking sixth. Red Bull's Mark Webber, who had to start from the pits, retired from the race after losing his right rear wheel in an incident which cost the team a fine and Webber a three-place penalty in the next GP in Bahrain.
In a race which saw drivers change from soft tyres to medium and vice versa, Alonso, who previously won here in 2005, was easily the most dominant and deservedly took the maximum 25 points at the end of the race.
"It feels good," Alonso told reporters. "Obviously a long time from the victory here -- eight years. Definitely it was nearly a perfect Sunday for us, with not any problem in the race. The start was clean, it was good.
"We managed to overtake Kimi. And then in the first stint we managed to pass Lewis as well. The car felt a little bit better on the degradation side let's say. And then in the rest of the race, obviously you need to take care of the tyres a little bit, you need to manage the gap with the guys behind.
"It was not so easy to understand the race sometimes. We were overtaking the McLarens, Hulkenberg, Sebastian, so it was a little bit of a mix. So it was not an easy race and there were some moments of action let's say and the risk is there when you have to do an overtaking manoeuvre and you have to manage that as well."
Raikkonen, who was hampered by a poor start which left him fourth after starting second on the grid, also had to bear with some damage to his front wing, after a clash with McLaren's Sergio Perez.
"I think we just had wrong settings (for the start), Raikkonen said. "The practice start was very good but then it was really bad the real start and we lost some positions and after that the car was okay, but I had a little accident, some problems with Perez and we damaged the nose and the front wing.
"I was surprised there was no more damage because I hit him quite hard. Also bit surprised that we didn't have any more problems after that. A bit too much understeer and destroying the front tyre because of that but we still could fight for second place and get quite a good result in the end. Obviously we wanted to try to win but today with all the issues it was not possible."
Hamilton was pretty satisfied with the end result, despite only managing third after starting on pole.
"It was a good race for me," Hamilton said. "Quite happy with third. Of course I would have liked to have won but congratulations to Fernando, he did a great job and so did Kimi. They were both a little bit too fast for us during the race.
The Brit, with wearing tyres, was just about able to hold off a late charge from Vettel in the final stages.
"My tyres were shot at the end and there was nothing I could do really to hold off Sebastian. A little bit unlucky with some traffic. Still, to get on the podium, really happy. Really happy with the points as well."
The result in China sees Vettel still on top on 52 points, but Raikkonen has gut the gap to three points, with the former world champion on 49. Alonso is third on 43 points, with Hamilton fourth on 40.
