Buemi delighted with second points finish

The Swiss driver eventually finished eighth, bringing his points tally to three following a seventh place in Melbourne, and battled confidently with world champions Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at various times during the race.

"I am very happy as the team did a super job so that we got another point to take away from here," he said afterwards. I am pleased that in three races, I have scored twice.

"Maybe I could have done a little bit better, but I'm happy all the same. We were very competitive in the early stages and I got past Raikkonen and Hamilton, but after that I struggled a bit.

"I think it was one of my hardest races ever. As for the incident with Vettel, it happened under safety car conditions: I didn't see him and I tried to swerve to the right, but it was not enough to avoid him.

"We changed the wing on my car and I'm glad I didn't spoil his race."

Toro Ross team-mate Sebastien Bourdais endured a difficult day, finishing 11th and spinning twice.

The Frenchman said afterwards that he felt the race should never have been run under such difficult conditions: "I've got mixed feelings, because I don't think we should have raced as there was so much aquaplaning.

"The fact the cars have a lot less downforce this year, aggravates the situation as it's hard to get the car down onto the track surface," he added. "I could have spun 15 or 20 times and Sutil's crash showed what could have happened."