After being replaced by Karun Chandhok in Germany, Team Lotus driver Jarno Trulli returned to his seat alongside Heikki Kovalainen.

After his victory the previous week in Germany, Lewis Hamilton had become the only driver other than Vettel to win multiple Grands Prix thus far in 2011; he was on 134 points, 5 behind Webber, yet 4 ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Both Mark Webber and Vettel failed to impress in second practice provoking Red Bull Racing to break the curfew on working hours in order to make drastic changes to the car.

Q1 saw the three newest teams fall out again – the two closely matched HRTs of Vitantonio Liuzzi and then Daniel Ricciardo sandwiched by the Virgin cars of Jérôme d'Ambrosio and Glock.

Jarno Trulli returned to his Lotus car and praised the new power steering system, despite being out-qualified by teammate Heikki Kovalainen.

Sébastien Buemi was the only man to qualify on the softer compound tyres and ended up in 18th on track, but would start 23rd due to his five-place grid penalty.

One Force India and one Sauber failed to make the cut – Kamui Kobayashi (13th) joined Heidfeld on row 7, and similarly Paul di Resta just missed out with 11th.

The Ferraris and Mark Webber struggled to get off the line on a damp track, the Mercedes cars of Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were fourth and fifth.

Alonso and Webber dropped down to sixth and seventh, with Felipe Massa down in eighth followed by Paul di Resta and Kamui Kobayashi.

The World Champion was able to hold him off until the fifth lap when he made a mistake and went wide at Turn 3, handing the lead to Hamilton, and allowing Jenson Button to catch up.

Hamilton was unaffected due to the lead he had built, but Vettel and Alonso conceded places to Button and Webber who were able to pass them before they had fully heated up their slick tyres.

After the entire field had pitted for slicks, the order at the front was Hamilton leading Button, followed by the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber with Alonso, Rosberg, di Resta, Schumacher, Massa and Kamui Kobayashi completing the top ten.

Button and Vettel also chose soft tyres, but Hamilton followed Alonso's suit and ran on the super-softs which meant that he, too, would need a further stop to make it to the finish.

Elsewhere, Heikki Kovalainen become the fourth and final retirement for the same reason as his teammate, giving Lotus Racing another double failure to finish.

Over half a minute in front of them, Alonso started closing in on Vettel at a rate that meant second place was a possibility by the end of the race, but then suffered another spin and he was forced to settle for third.

Jenson Button went on to win the race, his 200th Grand Prix start and the scene of his maiden victory ahead of Vettel in second and Alonso.

Hamilton was fourth from Webber, whilst Massa – who had out-qualified Alonso for the first time since the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix – was the final car classified on the lead lap in sixth place.