Rubens Barrichello claimed his second consecutive victory when he became the first-ever winner of the Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.

The Ferrari driver controlled the race from pole position and won Formula One's first visit to China by one second from Jenson Button.

The Englishman strengthened BAR's hold on second in the constructors' championship with a fine drive to second place, benefiting from a different strategy to his main rivals.

Kimi Raikkonen was Barrichello's chief threat for much of the race but ended up third for McLaren while Renault's Fernando Alonso was fourth.

World champion Michael Schumacher suffered an incident-packed race with a crash, a spin and a puncture hampering his efforts.

After starting from the pit lane following his qualifying mistake yesterday, the Ferrari driver ended up a lowly 12th.

Juan Pablo Montoya took fifth place for Williams, who saw the returning Ralf Schumacher punted into retirement by David Coulthard. The Scotsman went on to finish ninth for McLaren.

BAR's Takuma Sato fought back from his 10-place penalty on the grid to finish a strong sixth while the Sauber pair of Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa were seventh and eighth respectively.

Former world champion Jacques Villeneuve's return to Formula One after a year away was disappointing as the Renault driver finished 11th.

Barrichello led from the beginning after qualifying on pole position as Renault's famed start-line speed allowed Alonso to jump from sixth to third at the first corner.

Button lost out as part of that incident and had to pass Massa for fourth on lap three.

At the front Raikkonen turned up the heat on Barrichello, cutting the gap to just 0.2secs by lap seven.

Button was also on a charge and made it into the podium spots with a move on Alonso at the hairpin, also on lap seven.

Schumacher had reached 14th by lap 12 but did it the hard way by nudging Jaguar's Christian Klien out of the way, with the Austrian forced to retire.

Schumacher's weekend got even worse when he made his third costly error in two days, spinning on lap 16 at turn 13.

Schumacher was easily the quickest man on track and when he took half a second off the previous best all weekend to catch and pass brother Ralf he moved into fifth.

But the world champion had to make his late pit stop, dictated by a different strategy to his rivals, and dropped back to 14th.

Barrichello continued to resist Raikkonen's pressure as the pair edged clear of third-placed Button.

Barrichello and Raikkonen made their second pit stops with nothing changing between them, leaving Button clear in the lead as his alternative strategy paid dividends.

The Englishman pitted on lap 35 as Michael Schumacher's race was ruined by a left rear puncture. He was able to reach the pits but any hope of a podium finish were thwarted by the incident.

After a short third stint, Raikkonen went into the pits a lap later while Ralf Schumacher was hit by Coulthard and forced to retire his Williams. Coulthard suffered a costly puncture in the incident.

Button was reaping the rewards of his two-stop strategy by leading again when Barrichello pitted for a third and final time. But his hopes of victory were dashed when the Brazilian emerged ahead.

His strategy did at least move him ahead of Raikkonen, although the Finn was closing fast.

Over the final seven laps he sliced into Button's advantage to ensure the Englishman had a far from comfortable end to the race.

Button was also catching Barrichello, although that was more down to the Ferrari driver taking things easy over the final few laps.