Schumacher led the race from the start but fought a game of cat-and-mouse with Montoya until after the final round of pitstops when the Colombian emerged from his stop behind Rubens Barrichello. The Brazilian, on harder and less competitive tyres proved difficult to pass and by the time he pitted, Montoya's challenge was over.

But Montoya broke the lap record at Sepang, and if Schumacher proved that Ferrari's Bridgestone tyres are competitive in extreme temperatures, then at least JPM showed that the WilliamsF1 FW26 can run on the pace of the Italian cars. The pair traded fastest laps throughout, but their tyres reached optimum potential at different stages during stints. Eventually Schumacher's advantage was enough to make sure of the win.

“In the moments we needed to be quick, we were just quick enough,” said Schumacher. “Like at the beginning and end of each stint. Each time, before the pitstops and after the pitstops the gap sort of opened up and closed down quite rapidly. So it was really a tough fight and it wasn't granted until the end."

Montoya was disappointed. He believed there was still more to come from his car, and his tyres. But getting caught behind Barrichello, whose Ferrari just wasn't a factor in the race until near the end when a long second stint placed him right in front of the Colombian, meant he couldn't release that potential.

“I was trying to catch Michael all day and through the race the car got better and the tyres got better and better,” said Montoya. “I came out of the last stop and it was a shame that I came out behind Rubens. I went to pass him straight away and he blocked me. So I thought knowing Ferrari it's better to back off than you know… It's better to come home with eight points than be out of the race.”

Button's third place capped an excellent drive. The Englishman fought a battle with Renault's Jarno Trulli early in the race which even involved some wheel-banging on the straight as a freak rain shower made conditions tricky for around ten laps. Then, when he was required to push hard after his second stop to jump ahead of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, he simply pulled out the stops.

Even late in the race, when Barrichello began to home in on the Englishman's BAR, the response was mature and composed. He simply upped his own tempo and wound off the laps. “It's much the team's as it is mine,” said Button of his podium finish. “They have worked so hard for this. It's not the pinnacle of what we want to achieve but it is a good step in the right direction.”

Trulli finished the race fifth. He looked podium potential himself, but an early second stop to try and pass Raikkonen, who eventually retired with a smoky McLaren on lap 40, didn't work and he never regained his pace.

David Coulthard was sixth, but his McLaren never really had the pace of the leaders even if it was better than it had been in Melbourne. Fernando Alonso's Renault came in behind the Scot. Alonso was the only front-runner to opt for a two-stop strategy as opposed to three. It didn't work.

Felipe Massa took the last point for Sauber. But although the Brazilian had an excellent weekend in which he out-paced team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella throughout, his eighth place was at the expense of the unfortunate Takuma Sato whose BAR-Honda failed two laps from home. The Japanese driver had fought up the field from the last row of the grid.

Other retirements included Mark Webber and Ralf Schumacher. Webber started from the front row but bogged down at the start. Then fighting back he was hit by Schumacher and got a puncture. Having pitted for new tyres he then spun out of the race. Schumacher suffered BMW's first engine failure of the year having struggled with understeer after his collision with the Jaguar.