Intermittent rain made track conditions slippery though Button maintained the lead for the rest of the race to secure his second victory of the season and the ninth of his career.

The lead of the Constructors' Championship changed from Ferrari to McLaren as Red Bull maintained a hold on third place with 15 races remaining in the season.

[15] Mercedes introduced a modified rear wing controlled by pressure sensors to feed airflow through two small openings and the back of its flap.

[17] During the Friday practice sessions, Alonso tested a modified rear wing, which directed air onto its flap and onto the diffuser's leading edge via a curved pipe.

[18] The Williams and Renault teams changed the end plates on both of their car's front wings as the latter constructor opted to mount small vortex generators behind the rear-view mirrors to the side of the cockpit.

Although Buemi was unhurt, the FIA race director Charlie Whiting stopped the session for debris clearing and his teammate Jaime Alguersuari was kept in the garage while the team investigated the cause of the incident.

[21] Virgin driver Timo Glock's front wing shattered and the Lotus of Jarno Trulli shed its diffuser, both through bottoming out on a bump approaching turn one.

[22] During the session, where several drivers pirouetted and ran off the circuit, Buemi was unable to set a lap time because his car was rebuilt by Toro Rosso and Heikki Kovalainen stopped his Lotus at the side of the track towards the conclusion of practice with fading oil pressure.

Button, Alonso, Rosberg, Schumacher, Kubica, Massa and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi completed the top ten ahead of qualifying.

[24] Though the session passed relatively peacefully, Petrov ran wide onto the artificial grass leaving the final corner and he lost control of his Renault.

[27] Nonetheless, he went fastest in the third session to take his third pole position of the season and the eighth of his career with a time of 1 minute and 34.558 seconds on his final lap of qualifying.

[28][29] Alonso felt more comfortable driving on the hard compound tyres and took third while Rosberg in fourth worked with his race engineer Jock Clear to find a setup he liked.

Pedro de la Rosa of the Sauber team made a driving error by locking his rear wheels on the approach to turn 14 during his final timed lap and began from 17th.

[27] Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi failed to advance beyond the first session,[30] having been baulked by slower traffic and unable to set a lap that represented the speed of his car.

[27][29] Chandhok received a five-place grid penalty as the Hispania team broke the FIA seal on his F110's gearbox without a representative of the governing body being present;[32] he was then further penalised for his mechanics changing a hydraulic pump assembly with parts of a different specification to the originals overnight, and was made to start from the pit lane.

[35] Glock's car was stationary on its front jacks due to a sudden loss of air pressure in the engine valve system, which was traced to a chassis fault.

[38] Alonso made a fast getaway and passed the Red Bulls to lead the field on the approach to the first corner as Webber moved past his teammate Vettel for second.

[35] Several drivers, including Alonso, made pit stops for the intermediate compound tyres at the end of the second lap due to the intensifying rain.

[39] Rosberg, Button and the Renaults of Kubica and Petrov chose to remain on the circuit and the former led the field back to racing speed when the safety car was withdrawn at the end of lap three.

As Rosberg continued to pull away from Button on lap five, the stewards informed the Ferrari team that Alonso had jumped the start, for which he incurred a drive-through penalty.

During lap 17, Hamilton made a third try by achieving a fast exit leaving turn 13 and slipstreamed up the back of Schumacher on the backstraight and withstood the Mercedes driver's attempt to keep fifth.

[36] Their advantage – Petrov gradually fell off the pace to be within striking distance of the more experienced competitors – was negated when Alguersuari had an encounter with an Hispania car that damaged his front wing.

As he made a pit stop for a new nose cone, the wing fell off, scattering debris across the circuit and triggering the second deployment of the safety car on lap 22.

Button slowed to a near halt at the bottom hairpin, bunching the field up and causing controversy when Webber ran off the circuit at the final bend.

[36] Rosberg's tyres began to degrade on lap 32 as well as Hamilton's though his team told him to remain on the track because more rain was forecast later in the Grand Prix.

[39] The final phase of the race was run under increasingly heavy rain across the back part of the circuit, as a dry line began to appear along the main straight.

[3][5] Button hailed the win as "my best victory" and emphasised the importance of changing to the intermediate tyres during the safety car early in the Grand Prix, "That made the race.

[42][47] The Renault team principal Éric Boullier praised Petrov's pace and remaining calm under pressure on the wet track, and spoke of his belief that the manufacturer's first double-points finish was indicative of their aggressive development plan.

"[49] Schumacher was philosophical to have finished in ninth, saying his tyre strategy caused him to lose pace in the final ten laps but he was pleased to duel other drivers, "Today was one of those races that you do not want to remember, just like the whole weekend really.

"[51] The race stewards summoned Hamilton and Vettel to discuss the clash of wheels in the pit lane on lap five and review television footage of the incident.