Lewis Hamilton

As Lewis passed the baton of world champion to Brawn GP's Jenson Button this afternoon, he signed off by posting a real champion's drive, storming through the field from 17th on the grid to third at the chequered flag.

With a first-lap accident prompting a Safety Car, Lewis's crew chose to pit him immediately, effectively switching him to a single-stop strategy and placing him on the more efficient Prime tyre for the remainder of the race.

Restarting the race from 14th, he pushed hard, passing both Jaime Alguersuari and Romain Grosjean on a single lap, and moving up to fourth before making his final stop on lap 42.

Rejoining behind pole-sitter Rubens Barrichello, Lewis caught the Brazilian, finally KERS-boosting past him along the start-finish straight on lap 62 to be third.

"It was an incredible race for me and I'm so happy," Lewis said. "Starting at the back was a completely different feeling from last year. This time, I wasn't involved in the championship outcome, but I'm incredibly happy for Jenson. I've been down to congratulate him, his team and his family.

"As for my race, I was so far behind on the grid that I didn't expect to finish on the podium, but I fought so hard and kept pushing like crazy throughout the whole race. It feels like a win when you come through fighting for positions all the time with good overtaking manoeuvres at the end.

"I just kept pushing and did one qualifying lap after another, which was very hard. The team kept telling me to keep going at that speed and our strategy was excellent. This was a great team effort."

The points scored today move Vodafone McLaren Mercedes to third position in the constructors' world championship, one point ahead of Ferrari.

Heikki Kovalainen

From 16th on the grid, Heikki was squeezed through Turn Two, suffered contact with Sebastian Vettel and spun, rejoining at the tail of the field and quickly pitting to top up his fuel load. However, through no fault of his own, Heikki was released before the refuelling nozzle had fully decoupled. As a result, the fuel hose was pulled from the rig and fuel was showered into the path of a following car, where it briefly ignited.

The delay in releasing the hose, signalling Heikki out of the pits, and the resultant loss of fuel into the car, meant that Heikki's race was compromised from the very first lap.

Nonetheless, he raced hard, working his way into a points-scoring position before making his second stop on lap 29. Thereafter, he enjoyed a spirited tussle with Kamui Kobayashi and efficiently dealt with Giancarlo Fisichella - for the second time in two races - at the exit of his third and final stop.

Ninth position doesn't accurately reflect his efforts today. His fifth fastest race lap, and - without losing fuel at the start - the team's estimated finishing position of fourth, by contrast do.

"While the results don't show it, I had a good race out there today," said Heikki. "I lost about six or seven laps' worth of fuel with the incident with the fuel-hose. And, without that problem, my first stint would have been longer and would have allowed me to get ahead of some of the cars ahead of me.

"I chased Kobayashi for a long time, and, even though I had the pace, I couldn't launch an attack on him because my rear tyres had degraded quite a bit by then.

"Still, I'm very pleased that our team has now moved ahead of Ferrari in the constructors' world championship. And I really feel I could have added to that total without my problems in the pitlane today.

"I'm already looking forward to the next race in Abu Dhabi. My aim there will be to go flat-out to ensure we consolidate that position and finish the season in third place."

Martin Whitmarsh, Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: "First of all, on behalf of all at Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, I'd like to offer our congratulations to Jenson, to Ross, to Nick and to the entire Brawn team for winning the drivers' and constructors' world championships this afternoon - and to Mercedes-Benz, too, who supplied their winning engines. Jenson fully deserves his success - although I'd like to make clear that both Rubens and Sebastian would also have been worthy champions, had things played out differently.