10/04 Sebastian Vettel beats Jenson Button in Malaysian Grand Prix

By Sarah Holt BBC Sport in Sepang Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was in a class of his own as the world champion won a dramatic Malaysian Grand Prix. McLaren's Jenson Button was second to move up to second in the championship. Renault's Nick Heidfeld was third. Lewis Hamilton survived a late clash with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso as they disputed thid but a late stop for tyres dropped him to seventh behind Alonso. Scot Paul di Resta picked up his second point with 10th for Force India behind Michael Schumacher's Mercedes. Vettel ran a sensible race, handling his tyres well on Sepang's blistering circuit and coping without the Kers power-boost system in the second half of the race. The German comfortably collected his 12th career win to stretch his championship lead to 24 points. "The fight behind him is close behind him but Vettel has such an advantage out front in the championship now," said BBC commentator Martin Brundle. Alonso damages wing in Hamilton collision "It was a tremendous effort from Button and Heidfeld but can anyone stop Vettel from dominating grand prix racing at the moment?" McLaren endured a hectic race in which both Hamilton and Button were hustled by Alonso It was Button who ultimately came out on top as he collected his first podium of the season to kick start his championship charge. Alonso was the architect of his own downfall when he tried to pass Hamilton for the final podium place with 10 laps left. The Spaniard clipped Hamilton's right-rear tyre and lost some of his front wing as he attempted to pass his former McLaren team-mate. Alonso was forced into a fourth stop for a new nose and finished sixth overall but he still managed to finish ahead of Hamilton, who was struggling with excessive tyre wear for much of the race. Heidfeld easily passed him to take his first podium since the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix before Mark Webber followed suit to take fourth place for Red Bull and clinch his own comeback from a dreadful start. Hamilton despondent after Malaysia race "This is racing, I guess," Hamilton said dejectedly. "I started second and did everything I could to keep up and I don't really have too much to say. "It started (when) I got stuck behind Heidfeld, I had Jenson on my inside and Heidfeld on my outside so squashed into Turn One. "It was difficult to defend without hitting them but that's racing sometimes. "Through the race, my tyres went off, we boxed (pitted) too early, that made us box earlier again, all the time we were boxing early. "My tyres were done on the end. I have to take it on the chin and see how it goes." The race pattern was set at the start, when the Renaults surprised the pack by coming round the outside and Heidfeld demoting Hamilton as he moved up to second, while team-mate Vitaly Petrov also gained three places For the second race running, Alonso got caught up in the tumult and saw his team-mate Felipe Massa sail past him. Massa had his own work cut out during the race defending his position and the Brazilian did well to collect sixth ahead of the recovering Alonso. Webber had to run the entire race without Kers - which he later admitted was a major disadvantage - and he was the biggest loser at the start as he found himself 10th at the end of the first lap. The Australian, who arrived in Malaysia desperate to return the second Red Bull to the sharp end of the field, dug in and moved forward with a four-stop strategy, passing Massa right at the last, to claim a hard-won fourth place. "Webber was just swamped into the run down to the first corner," explained BBC analyst David Coulthard. "It's a great comeback." More to follow