Nico Rosberg claims his second victory of the season after seeing both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel surrender the lead due to faults. Despite a number or great overtaking laps, this will unfortunately be another race where Pirelli hit the headlines as four left rear punctures caused havoc amongst the field.
Rosberg had to hold off a fantastic charge from Mark Webber who came from fifth on lap-45 to second and just 0.7 seconds behind the Mercedes as they reached the chequered flag. Fernando Alonso had made a similar charge at the end to grab third and Hamilton managed to recover from one of those punctures to claim fourth from Kimi Raikkonen, who wasn't pitted during a Safety Car when his rivals were, much to Finn's dismay.
Hamilton had got off brilliantly from the start with Rosberg falling behind Vettel. Webber also had a shocking start, falling to 15th after losing some his front wing after contact from Romain Grosjean. Felipe Massa was another winner from the start, climbing to fifth, with Raikkonen sixth.
Alonso began his first charge by overtaking Grosjean to claim eighth on lap two. Webber had to start regaining his places and it began on lap eight with an overtake on Jenson Button to go tenth. Lap eight was also where the carnage started as, out of nowhere, Hamilton's left rear tyre just imploded and his chances of winning this Grand Prix had now gone. The Brit did manage to get the wounded car back to the pits but the lead was now with Vettel.
Massa suffered the same problem on lap ten; the Ferrari's left rear also imploded as the Brazilian was taking a corner and he span off the track. Again, fortunately, Massa also managed to get it back to the pits and continue the race albeit in last place.
Grosjean became the first man to pit for his first tyre change on lap ten. Alonso and Webber followed on lap-11 with the Red Bull also getting a front nose change after its previous damage. The early stops seemed to work as Grosjean and Alonso managed to overtake Raikkonen on lap-12 before Alonso also moved ahead of Grosjean to claim seventh. Alonso was then fifth come lap-13 after overtaking Jean-Eric Vergne while Rosberg and Adrian Sutil came in for their stops. Vettel responded by pitting a lap later and comfortably retained his lead.
Lap-15 saw Vergne become victim number three as his left rear also burst and splattered all over the road. Luckily, the two Lotus' managed to get through without any trouble although Raikkonen was bombarded with the debris after passing Grosjean just before. Again, Vergne had managed to get to the pits and the Safety Car was deployed. It took five laps before the Safety Car came back in again and Webber was the first to react, overtaking Sergio Perez to gain eighth. Vettel had managed to surge away to keep his lead under control.
Ricciardo, who's now staking his claim to be in Webber's Red Bull next season, managed to overtake Grosjean on lap-28 to claim fifth. Esteban Gutierrez suffered some front wing damage on that lap after seemingly crashing in to one of the polystyrene advertising boards. A lap later and Webber had also found a way past Grosjean to take seventh.
Raikkonen was the first man to pit for a second time on lap-30 and he was followed by Grosjean and Alonso a lap later. Again the early stops seemed to pay dividends as both Raikkonen and Alonso managed to overtake Hamilton to claim sixth and seventh respectively. By lap-34, after a few more pit stops, Webber had also managed to overtake Hamilton to move in to fifth. Just like before, Rosberg pitted on lap-35 before Vettel came in a lap later an easily kept his lead. Webber had also managed to claim fourth from Alonso on lap-36. Vergne was then retired on lap-37 after his earlier puncture had caused too much damage to his floor and couldn't continue.
Vettel was also made to retire on lap-41 after suddenly suffering a gearbox failure, meaning he had to park the Red Bull on the finish straight and suffer his first retirement of the season when it looked like the win was all his. This caused a second Safety Car and it was here where nearly all but Raikkonen took advantage by coming in to the pits. This bemused Raikkonen and the Finn did ask why he wasn't called in and the team's response was simply 'we don't know but it's too late now'.
The Safety Car came in on lap-45 and Webber instantly began his final charge by overtaking Ricciardo for fourth place. Alonso began in the same vain by overtaking Button to claim seventh. Perez became the fourth victim of the rear left puncture on lap-46 where again the tyre just burst. It was his second left rear puncture of the weekend and again it caused too much damage for him to continue so also had to be retired from the race.
Webber overtook Sutil to claim third on lap-47 with Alonso and Hamilton managing to pass Ricciardo to claim fifth and sixth. Webber was second on the next lap after taking advantage of the poor decision not to pit Raikkonen and Alonso was also gaining by taking fourth from Sutil. As Webber continued his charge to Rosberg, Hamilton also overtook Sutil before both he and Alonso had passed Raikkonen by lap-51 to put the Ferrari on the podium.
Grosjean was retired on the final lap which meant he could watch the last few corners of Webber's chase on Rosberg. But Rosberg managed to hold on, although it may not have been the case if the race was a few laps longer, with 0.7 seconds to spare over Webber. Race result:
1. Rosberg (Mercedes), 2. Vettel (Red Bull), 3. Alonso (Ferrari), 4. Hamilton (Mercedes), 5. Raikkonen (Lotus), 6. Massa (Ferrari), 7. Sutil (Force India), 8. Ricciardo (Toro Rosso), 9. Di Resta (Force India), 10. Hulkenberg (Sauber), 11. Maldonado (Williams), 12. Bottas (Williams), 13. Button (McLaren), 14. Gutierrez (Sauber), 15. Pic (Caterham), 16. Bianchi (Marussia), 17. Chilton (Marussia), 18. Van der Garde (Caterham) DNF: Vergne (Toro Rosso), Vettel (Red Bull), Perez (McLaren), Grosjean (Lotus)
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