The margin on this occasion around Sepang may only have been just over three seconds to McLaren’s Jenson Button, but it was by no means any less emphatic.

Taking the end of last season into consideration, Vettel has now won four races in a row, and five of the last six grands prix overall.

Today’s triumph was also the 12th of his career, and second in succession at this Far East circuit.

Behind Button, who has now moved up to second in the standings, albeit already 24 points down on Vettel, Renault’s Nick Heidfeld grabbed third ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.

The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso finished in fifth and sixth and then Lewis Hamilton seventh.

Kamui Kobayashi was eighth on a two-stop strategy, with Michael Schumacher ninth and Paul Di Resta again collecting a point for 10th.

Heidfeld was the big winner and Webber a major loser at the start of the race.

Starting from sixth on the grid, and exploiting the long run down to the first corner at the Sepang circuit, Heidfeld leapfrogged his way up to second in his Renault.

In stark contrast Webber suffered a miserable beginning, dropping from third to ninth in his Red Bull by the end of the first lap, sandwiched in between Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi.

At the head of the field world champion Vettel, from his fifth pole in the last six races, made a clean getaway and after three laps had opened up a 2.8secs cushion to Heidfeld, with Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren a further second adrift.

Jenson Button held fourth in his McLaren, with the second Renault of Vitaly Petrov also proving adept at the start as he had moved his way up from eighth to fifth, with the Ferrari duo of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso behind him.

The one burning question ahead of the race was whether it would rain, with one Virgin team member claiming there was a 90% chance.

There were a few spots in the air as the cars took to the grid prior to the formation lap, although that was understood to be a few kilometres away to the east and would miss the circuit.

Lap five turned out to be a disastrous one for Petrov who initially lost fifth place to Massa at the start and then later on ran wide at a corner, allowing Alonso through.

Contradictory radio messages then followed as Vettel was told by his team there would be “no proper rain for 30 minutes.”

However, Schumacher was informed to look after his tyres because rain was expected “in the next 10 minutes.”

At the start of lap six Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi pulled out a move on Webber to claim ninth, relegating the Australian to the final points scoring position.

It proved to be a see-saw battle, however, between the duo as they continued to trade places regularly and at various places on the track, primarily due to Webber apparently having a problem with his KERS power-boost system.

At the end of lap 10 the 34-year-old was the first of the leaders to make a stop for fresh rubber, relegating him to 17th.

From 14th place in his Force India, Paul di Resta was the next in, followed swiftly by Hamilton from his third spot at the end of lap 12, the Briton slotting into 10th ahead of Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi.

A lap later Vettel, Heidfeld, Button and Massa all pitted whilst around the grandstands a few umbrellas and rain macs started to appear as very light rain fell.

From his one short lap in the lead Alonso came in on lap 14 along with Schumacher who seconds earlier was three abreast alongside Hamilton and Buemi on the approach to turn 15, with the Briton emerging the winner.

Soon after Hispania’s Narain Karthikeyan stopped on track, joining Williams’ Pastor Maldonado on the retirement list.

In the shake-up after the stops, after 17 laps Vettel was holding a 6.3secs cushion over Hamilton, followed by Alonso who had taken Button on lap 16 to claim third.

Heidfeld had dropped to fifth after badly losing out in the stops, with Webber now running a superb sixth, followed by Massa, Petrov and Di Resta in ninth.

On lap 18 Hamilton set the fastest lap of the race, taking 0.6secs out of Vettel's lead to trim it to 5.6secs.

Shortly before that the race stewards had announced a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for Buemi for speeding in the pit lane, the Swiss running in 12th at the time.

At the end of lap 20 Buemi took his punishment, losing four places as he returned to the track in 16th.

On lap 22 Massa pulled out a move on Webber to claim sixth, dropping the latter to seventh, although he then made his second stop at the end of that lap to slip to 12th.

From fourth position Button followed Webber in a lap later, and given the gaps now in the field, only fell to seventh.

At the head of the field Vettel’s lead over Hamilton had been reduced to 3.9secs, with Alonso in close attendance, a further 3.4secs down.

It was at that stage, however, that Hamilton pitted for the second time, emerging just behind Petrov in sixth place.

On another miserable day for Williams, they suffered their second double DNF this season as Barrichello retired in the pits.

That was followed swiftly by Sauber’s Sergio Perez who pulled his car over at the top of the pit straight, taking the total to four retirees.

Vettel, covering Hamilton, made his second stop at the end of lap 25, soon after which the latter passed Petrov to claim fifth on track.

Alonso and Heidfeld then pitted from their first and fourth places respectively as the field again endured a major shake-up due to the tyre stops, as had been anticipated at this circuit.

Massa and Petrov were the last of the major frontrunners to take on fresh rubber for a second time on lap 27.

At half race distance, 28 laps, Vettel’s lead over Hamilton was just 3.9secs, followed closely by Button, Alonso, Webber, the top five covered by just 13.2secs.

It was at that stage Vettel was told not to use his KERS, offering pursuers Hamilton and Button the chance to close in.

However, on lap 30, Hamilton lost 0.7secs to Vettel, whilst behind him Button closed to within 1.3secs.

Soon after, the message was repeated to Vettel over the radio not to KERS, yet he managed to pull out a further second on Hamilton on lap 32.

That was when Webber made a third pit stop, following which Vettel set the fastest lap at that point to take another second out of Hamilton.

When Hamilton pitted for a third time on lap 37 the gap to Vettel had increased to eight seconds, dropping him to sixth just ahead of Webber after a woeful stop of 6.9secs.

Button followed in behind Hamilton on the next lap, his team doing a sterling job as he managed to leapfrog his team-mate.

At the head of affairs on lap 41, Vettel and Alonso pitted from the lead and second place respectively.

The German had no problem in retaining his first place but Alonso dropped back and with 14 laps remaining the field was led by Vettel by 8.8secs to Button, with Hamilton third and 5.7secs down, Webber on his tail and then Alonso pushing hard in fifth.

Webber made his expected fourth stop on lap 43, and instead of being right behind third-placed Hamilton, he again dropped to ninth place.

On lap 45 Hamilton was then involved in a wheel-to-wheel battle royal with Alonso which spilled over on lap 46.

Attempting a manoeuvre on Hamilton, Alonso ran into the back of the right rear tyre on the McLaren, losing the left end of his front wing.

Hamilton was fortunate not to collect a puncture from the incident which naturally forced the Spaniard to pit for a new nose, dropping him from fourth to seventh, missing out on a potential podium.

Hamilton, though, was lacking his DRS system, the moveable rear wing, leaving him short on speed down the start-finish straight.

On lap 52 Hamilton lost a place on the podium to Heidfeld as the German grabbed third, and was gobbled up soon after by Webber as he ran wide, forcing him into the pits for a fourth time.

Then on lap 54, and running eighth at the time, Petrov ran wide at a corner and over a kerb, propelling him into the air.

In bouncing back onto the track, the impact dislodged the steering wheel, forcing him into braking and pulling over into a trackside hoarding without being able to turn the car.

Come the chequered flag Vettel made it two out of two this season, with Button finishing 3.2secs down.