The race, contested over 53 laps, was won by Sebastian Vettel, driving a Red Bull after starting from second on the grid.

Mark Webber, who started on pole position, settled for second after being forced to switch to a three stop strategy, which in the end was not successful.

[5] Räikkönen in turn also increased his lead over Lewis Hamilton to 16 points after the Briton retired from puncture damage after colliding with Vettel on lap one.

Jules Bianchi and Charles Pic were each given ten-place grid penalties after stewards found they had been speeding behind the safety car at the previous round in Korea.

The session was not without incident, as both Jules Bianchi (Marussia), Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) both went off at the exit of the second Degner corner.

Sergio Pérez lost control of his McLaren going into Spoon, and slid backwards and made heavy contact with the tyre barrier.

Esteban Gutierrez had the strongest race of his career with 7th beating Nico Rosberg who had to serve a drive through penalty for an unsafe release in the pits.