Full race result

Finishing positions:
1 M Schumacher (Ferrari)
2 JP Montoya (Williams)
3 J Button (BAR)
4 R Barrichello (Ferrari)
5 J Trulli (Renault)
6 D Coulthard (McLaren)
7 F Alonso (Renault)
8 P Massa (Sauber)

Lap 56: Michael Schumacher takes the chequered flag, five seconds ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya.

Jenson Button claims the first podium finish of his career, holding off Rubens Barrichello to take third.

Lap 55: Schumacher heads into the last lap with a 12-second lead over Montoya. Button has enough of an advantage over Barrichello to hang on to third.

Lap 54: Barrichello closes the gap to Button to less than four seconds.

Lap 53: Sato's BAR Honda appears to suffer an engine failure with just three gaps to go. Nervous moments lie ahead for Sato's team-mate Button.

Lap 52: Barrichello cuts the gap to Button to 6.1 seconds but surely he does not have enough time to grab third.

Lap 51: Button puts in a good lap to stop Barrichello reeling him in at such a rapid rate.

Lap 50: Panis serves his drive-through penalty with a shake of the head in the direction of his Toyota team. It promotes Klien's Jaguar to 11th place.

Lap 49: Barrichello has closed the gap to third-placed Button to 7.2 seconds.

Lap 48: Schumacher's race looks to be won as Montoya remains almost 10 seconds adrift. Panis is hit with a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Lap 47: Button is looking good for his first ever podium as he has a nine-second advantage over fourth-placed Barrichello.

Lap 46: Coulthard makes a mistake, running wide, allowing Alonso to close up to just over eight seconds.

Lap 45: Barrichello emerges from the pits in front of Trulli to move into fourth place.

Lap 44: Barrichello pits, freeing Montoya, but surely the gap to Schumacher is too big now. He rejoins in fifth place.

Lap 43: Schumacher takes advantage of Barrichello being between himself and Montoya to pull out a further second.

Lap 42: Michael Schumacher leads his yet-to-stop team-mate Rubens Barrichello by 7.1 seconds, with Montoya desperate to pass the Brazilian. Doubtless Ferrari will ask Barrichello to slow Montoya down as much as possible to give Schumacher some breathing space.

Lap 41: Raikkonen pulls out of the race - his retirement in two races and it looks like another engine failure.

Lap 40: Michael Schumacher pits from the lead and Button pits from third place.

Lap 39: Montoya pits from second place.

Lap 38: As their battle reaches a new intensity, Michael Schumacher ekes out a small advantage over Montoya and takes his lead back to 4.3secs. Coulthard pits from seventh place.

Lap 37: Montoya brings the gap to Michael Schumacher down to 3.7secs.

Lap 36: Michael Schumacher stabilises the gap and gains 0.1secs over Montoya.

Lap 35: Michael Schumacher loses another 0.4secs to Montoya 4.4secs. Sato pits from eighth place.

Lap 34: Montoya fights back and reduces Michael Schumacher's lead to 4.8secs.

Lap 33: Schumacher extends his lead over Montoya to 5.4secs. Button is now 3.8secs ahead of Raikkonen.

Lap 32: Schumacher pegs Montoya's gain at 0.1secs on this lap and the lead is now five seconds. The Renaults, which took on a lot of fuel at their second stops, are struggling.

Lap 31: The gap between first and second is down to 5.1secs. In third place, Button is 2.4secs ahead of Raikkonen's McLaren.

Lap 30: Montoya brings Michael Schumacher's lead down to 5.9secs. It appears that the tyres on the two cars work in different cycles, with the Michelins on the Williams quicker earlier in the stint and Ferrari's Bridgestones faster later on.

Lap 29: Montoya sets a new fastest lap and is 6.6secs adrift of leader Michael Schumacher.

Lap 28: Ralf Schumacher retires with what looks like an engine failure. Leader Barrichello pits.

Lap 26: Leaders Schumacher and Montoya stop together, and Button comes in as well. The BAR driver rejoins ahead of Raikkonen, putting himself on course for a podium position.

Lap 25: Raikkonen pits - and manages to stay ahead of Trulli, who made a longer stop. Webber spins off in the Jaguar.

Lap 24: Alonso takes sixth place from Coulthard around the outside of the first corner. Michael Schumacher is now more than seven seconds ahead of Montoya. Alonso and Coulthard both stop - and Coulthard re-takes the lead in the pits because Renault put a lot more fuel in Alonso's car than McLaren do Coulthard's.

Lap 22: Another great lap by Michael Schumacher extends his lead over Montoya to 5.5secs.

Lap 21: Michael Schumacher is now 4.6secs ahead of Montoya.

Lap 20: Trulli comes into the pits from fourth place in an attempt to leapfrog Raikkonen's McLaren.

Lap 19: Schumacher fights back and extends his lead over Montoya by 0.6secs to 3.9secs.

Lap 18: Montoya reduces Michael Schumacher's lead to 3.3secs as Trulli closes right up to Raikkonen in the battle for third.

Lap 17: Montoya is now just 3.4secs behind Michael Schumacher.

Lap 16: Coulthard is holding off Alonso and Ralf Schumacher in the battle for seventh place. Montoya reduces Schumacher's lead to 3.6secs. Raikkonen is being dropped and is having to concentrate on holding off Trulli.

Lap 15: Montoya loses time lapping Webber, but still takes 0.4secs off Michael Schumacher's lead to reduce it to 4.2secs.

Lap 14: Montoya takes 1.8secs out of Michael Schumacher's lead with a new lap record. The Colombian is now 4.6secs behind the Ferrari.

Lap 13: With the first pit stops over, Michael Schumacher leads Montoya by 6.4secs, with Raikkonen 3.1secs behind the Williams.

Lap 12: Montoya and Button stop from first and second places. Button is passed by Trulli as he comes out of the pits.

Lap 11: Ralf Schumacher stops in the Williams.

Lap 10: Raikkonen, Trulli and Barrichello stop and the Renault passes the Ferrari in the pits.

Lap nine: Webber is to have a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Michael Schumacher is the first of the front-runners to make a stop for fuel and tyres. He was only two seconds ahead of Montoya when he stopped. Coulthard, Alonso and Massa also stop.

Lap eight: An incident involving Webber is under investigation by the stewards.

Lap seven: The Renaults are on the move, with Trulli continuing his battle with Button, and the incredible Alonso pushing Coulthard hard.

Lap six: Schumacher sets another new fastest lap and is now 4.2secs clear of Montoya, who has a 5.6secs advantage over Raikkonen.

Lap five: Alonso is now challenging Coulthard for seventh. Ralf Schumacher passes Webber at the first corner for ninth place, and the Jaguar driver now has a puncture after a light touch between the two cars.

Michael Schumacher sets a new fastest lap to extend his lead by 1.3secs to 3.2secs as the track dries out on the corners where it had been damp. Webber pits for new tyres.

Lap four: Incredibly, Alonso passes Webber for eighth place at the first corner, having started from the back of the grid. A brilliant recovery by the Spanish Renault driver.

Lap three: Button challenges Barrichello into the first corner. The Brazilian is believed to be on the harder Bridgestone tyre - and it is raining as well. Button and Trulli are passing and re-passing each other a few times a lap at the moment.

Light rain will favour Michelin. But if it rains hard then the Bridgestone wet tyres will be better.

Schumacher leads Montoya by 1.6secs.

Lap two: Barrichello misses his braking point early in the lap and is passed by Montoya and Raikkonen.

Lap one: Webber makes a poor start from the front row, allowing Barrichello to follow Schumacher into the first corner. Montoya is up to third, followed by Raikkonen and Trulli. Michael Schumacher leads by two seconds at the end of the first lap.

0701: Kimi Raikkonen spins on the formation lap but gets going again before the field passes his McLaren so he will be able to retain his grid position.

0700: The rain has stopped, and the track is dry with all the cars on dry-weather grooved tyres as they head off from the grid for their formation lap.

0650: There is rain falling as the cars sit on the grid with 10 minutes to go - if it continues it could play even further into Ferrari's hands.

0615: It is a steamy 36C as the teams prepare their cars for the second race of the season, with the track temperature at 51C.

These are exactly the conditions that Ferrari's rivals had hoped for, in the belief that they would favour their Michelin tyres over the Bridgestones used by the world champions.

But Ferrari and Bridgestone are confident that work over the winter has resolved their previous deficiencies in hot weather, and events so far in Malaysia have borne them out.

Renault and BAR have taken the opportunity of changing the engines on the cars of Fernando Alonso and Takuma Sato, both of whom spun in qualifying.

Under new rules this season, this would mean being put to the back of the grid - but the two drivers are at the back anyway, so their teams have given them new engines as an extra insurance policy against failures in the demanding conditions of Malaysia.