Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes their first Grand Prix victory since 1955 on Sunday as he achieved a start-to-finish win at the Chinese Grand Prix, dpa reported.
McLaren's Jenson Button, who finished second, lost any chance of beating the German with a disastrous pit stop, while Lewis Hamilton in the second McLaren was third. Rosberg clearly managed to win the start against his more experienced team-mate Michael Schumacher, who started alongside him, while Button moved up to third.
Seven-time world champion Schumacher, however, was forced to retire after his first pit stop when mechanics failed to fit his front right tyre properly.
"The front wheel got loose, we need to check why and what happened. I noticed it in turn three once I started to turn, with the front-right tyre. There was a bit of smoke and it was damaged, so I decided to stop it," the German said.
Rosberg, remained in the lead after the first round of stops, with the two McLarens of Button and Hamilton chasing him.
With some teams on two-stop strategies and others on three, there was a constant swapping of places.
When Rosberg pitted for the second time, Button moved into the lead with the German coming out behind him, but ahead of Sauber's Sergio Perez and Hamilton, who was struggling to overtake the Mexican.
A disastrous third stop for Button, which took 9.7 seconds, cost the 2009 world champion any chance of winning the race and allowed Rosberg to open up a comfortable lead.
Behind him though, teams were wondering what strategies their main rivals had chosen and with 10 laps remaining Kimi Raikkonen in a Lotus and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel were second and third.
Button and Hamilton moved through the field after their final stops though to secure the podium places behind Rosberg, while Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber managed to overtake Vettel to finish fourth.
Vettel took fifth place, while Romain Grosjean in a Lotus was sixth. The two Williams drivers Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado were seventh and eighth respectively, while Fernando Alonso in a Ferrari and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi took the two final top 10 places.
As Rosberg crossed the finishing line he screamed "YES" after giving Mercedes, which only returned to the sport as a team in 2010, their first victory.
Ahead of next Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, Hamilton leads the drivers' standings with 45 points from Button, who has 43. Alonso is third on 37.