Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were gifted a one-two for McLaren at the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday when the leading Red Bulls of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel collided, DPA reported.
Vettel tried to pass Webber for the lead in the 41st lap but never got fully past the Australian. The two cars touched, Vettel spun off and damaged his vehicle beyond repair while Webber at least managed to salvage third place after replacing the front wing.
The McLaren's took full advantage of the drama as Hamilton claimed his first season victory and 12th overall after briefly being passed by Button in the 49th lap.
Webber at least maintained the championship lead with 93 points, but now has Button (88) and Hamilton (84) on his heels. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso has 79 while Vettel remained stranded on 78 and dropped from second to fifth place.
"I wasn't too eager ... I felt I could go faster. I used my chance and was inside. I concentrated on the brakes point for T12. I was inside and had priority for the next turn," said Vettel, who refused to take the blame.
"It is stupid under team-mates, but I should have been given the necessary space."
Webber visibly paused when asked about in the incident in the post race news conference before saying: "It was an interesting few metres on the track and it is not the result we wanted."
Team boss Christian Horner did not single out a culprit but said that "it is very disappointing to give away a race win like that" as Red Bull lost the constructors' list lead to McLaren.
"They should have never been where they were ... It is up to the drivers to respect each other and to give each other room," Horner said.
Webber handily won the start while both McLarens were ambushed, with Vettel passing Hamilton and Michael Schumacher getting past Button. However, the Brits responded instantly with Hamilton back in second place in turn three and Button fourth again shortly afterwards.
Hamilton started to mount pressure on Webber from lap 12 onwards but never had a realistic chance of passing the Australian and then even found himself a place down four laps later.
Webber and Hamilton came into the pits simultaneously in the 16th but Hamilton had to be held up a fraction because Webber was passing, and this split second was enough for Vettel, who had changed tyres a lap earlier, to slip past the 2008 champion.
A threat of rain occurred halfway through the race but it was the Red Bulls who provided the shake-up in the end as Webber was denied a third straight victory from pole.
Everyone held their breath again when Button attacked Hamilton at the same spot where Red Bull met disaster. But he eventually got past his team-mate, with Hamilton, however, responding in the opening turn of lap 50 to win in 1 hour 28 minutes 43.420 seconds. Button trailed by 2.4 seconds and Webber was 24 seconds off the pace.
"It was quite an exciting race. We knew we had good race speed and could stay with the Red Bulls," said Hamilton.
"Me and Jenson had a good battle. Luckily I got past him again."
Button said: "We were wheel to wheel for about five corners. It was good fun. When Lewis got back past into Turn One, we were in fuel-save mode."
Schumacher came fourth ahead of Mercedes GP team-mate Nico Rosberg, his best result since his return to racing this season. Robert Kubica (Renault), Felipe Massa, Alonso (both Ferrari), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber) completed the top 10 for the points.
The next race is the Canadian GP in Montreal on June 13.