McLaren's Jensen Button stormed to victory in the opening Grand Prix of the 2012 Formula One season Sunday, edging reigning champion Sebastian Vettel into second and teammate Lewis Hamilton into third.
Vitaly Petrov's promising maiden race for Caterham was cut short on lap 36 with a steering wheel issue, forcing the safety car onto the track with the Russian parked awkwardly across it.
Red Bull's Vettel took advantage when the race restarted, overtaking Hamilton in second place and fending him off for the remainder.
"We had a strong winter and qualifying really shows that. It's nice to come away with a win in the first race of the season," said Button, who started second behind Hamilton on the grid and also began his 2009 charge to the championship with a win in Melbourne.
Mark Webber of Red Bull produced his best finish in his home Grand Prix with fourth, while Fernando Alonso battled to fifth after disappointing in practice and qualifying, which left the Spaniard 12th on the grid.
The two Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez came sixth and eighth, respectively, sandwiching Lotus' 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkkonen in seventh on his return to F1 after two years out rallying.
Petrov qualified in 20th and was in 15th position when his race ended, and he and his Caterham team drew positives from their first outing together.
"I was having a fantastic race and it's such a shame we had to retire the car," Petrov said in comments on the Caterham website. He said he was catching Bruno Senna and Felipe Massa ahead when disappointment struck.
"Until that point everything was going exactly to plan. ... I was catching Senna and Massa ahead and the car felt really well balanced."
Petrov's teammate Heikki Kovalainen retired a mere five laps after Petrov with a broken left front suspension.
"I am very encouraged by our performance in the race and we have a good platform to build on," said Mark Smith, Caterham's technical director.
"It is clear that we can race with a number of cars in the midfield so we will move on to Malaysia and make sure we have a strong weekend in front of the home fans."
Kuala Lumpur is the home Grand Prix for the Malaysian-owned Caterham team and is set for next week.
