Rosberg takes maiden victory at 2012 F1 China GP

After taking the first pole position in his career on Saturday, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes won the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday for his first career Formula One victory.

The 27-year-old German led for most of the 56-lap race and clocked the fastest time of one hour 36 minutes 26.929 seconds, 20.6 seconds clear of the runner-up Jenson Button.

"It's an unbelievable feeling, very, very cool. It's been a long time coming for me, and for the team as well over the past two years and a bit. Now, it's finally here," said Rosberg, whose victory was also the first for the Mercedes team.

"It's just nice to see how quickly we are now progressing. I didn't expect to be that fast today. I expected that we had a good chance to be in front, but I was very happy today with the pace I was able to go in the race."

Rosberg was enjoying such a comfortable lead in the front that he missed an incredible battle going on behind him.

The battle for the second position was extremely tight with several drivers chasing close and frequently changing their rankings, but McLaren's British driver Button, who started from the fifth grid, came out as the runner-up.

"I was aware of a bit of that because every lap the name changed of the person behind me. I said 'what's going on back there?'" said a jubilant Rosberg.

Rosberg only pitted in twice throughout the race while Jenson adopted a three-stop strategy for you today, and the third stop cost him some big time as the working stuff found some trouble fixing in the rear tyres.

"Before that our race pace was good, especially on the harder of the two tyres. I had some really good battles out there. And then in my last stop, I stopped on the marks and we had a problem with the rear of the car, so I was stuck there for nine or ten seconds I think it was. It was a pity because when I exited the pits I had four cars in front of me; cars that I wouldn't have been racing," said Button.

"I would have had a nice clear track to hopefully hunt down Nico. It was a big gap but you've got to give it a go. But, all in all, a fun day. I really enjoyed today. It was a good race with some good overtaking out there."

In spite of the five-grid penalty, Button's teammate and countryman Lewis Hanmilton managed to climb up and settled with the third position as he delivered a series of thrilling overtakings.

"I'm very happy to have made it up to the podium. As I said, I wanted to just go forwards and the team did a great job with the pit stops and with strategy. I think it was one of the best races so far this season, just because there was a lot of overtaking and there was a train of us. I think seven cars or something. It was incredible," said Hamilton, who is atop of the drivers standings with 45 points after finishing third in all the three races this season.

Red Bull's Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel occupied the fourth and fifth position respectively. And it should be an acceptable result for Vettel, as the twice world champion had suffered from a disastrous qualifying on Sunday and only started 11th.

The come-back former champ Kimi Raikkonen was still struggling to find his form, finishing 14th after running from the fourth grid. Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi also experienced a disappointing race as the Japanese ranked 10th after starting from third grid.

It was the first victory for Mercedes after the team bought out Brawn GP to compete in F1 since 2010. But the celebrating atmosphere would be marred by veteran champion Michael Schumacher's early exit following his first row start from the grid.

The next race will be held in Bahrain next week from April 20-22. Team McLaren is currently ranking on top of the constructors standings with 88 points.