Button reigns in the rain

The Brawn GP driver was leading on the 33rd of 56 scheduled laps when the race had to be red-flagged due to monsoon conditions at the Sepang circuit and - with the torrential rain refusing to relent and darkness descending - organisers eventually decided not to restart the race, awarding half-points to the top eight finishers.

"What a crazy race," said the 29-year-old, who started on pole position but dropped to fourth after the first sequence of corners as he was passed by Nico Rosberg, Jarno Trulli and the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

"My start was pretty bad, I had a lot of oversteer in the car and I don't think I got heat into the rear tyres. I went back to fourth, got back up to third and eventually got back to the front and I was pretty happy."

The race results were counted back to the 31st lap and Button was awarded first place and five points after finishing 22.722 seconds ahead of Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber, who took second after deciding to stay out slightly longer on his extreme wet tyres.

Timo Glock was third for Toyota a further eight-tenths of a second behind Heidfeld after a strong run in intermediates during a period before the heavens fully opened.

Trulli was fourth in the second Toyota, Button's Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello finished fifth and Red Bull's Mark Webber was sixth in the first race to be shortened because of poor weather since the 1991 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton enjoyed some consolation after a difficult week by finishing seventh for McLaren, while Rosberg gained the final half-point by finishing eighth for Williams.

It was an eventful outing for Button, who now leads the world championship standings with 15 points, five ahead of Barrichello.