Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel defies team orders to claim victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel won the battle of the Red Bulls to claim the 27th victory of his Formula One career in Malaysia.

The German driver was involved in an exhilarating battle with team-mate Mark Webber late in the race and at one stage team principal Christian Horner had to to admonish the triple world champion over his radio.

The 25-year-old, however, ultimately held sway to take the chequered flag at the Sepang International Circuit by 4.2 seconds from Webber.

Behind them Lewis Hamilton stepped on to the podium for Mercedes for the first time as he kept team-mate Nico Rosberg at bay over the closing stages, with the duo involved in their own private tussle.

But that was also not without intervention from team boss Ross Brawn who twice informed Rosberg of the team's strategy, forcing him to hold station in fourth spot and allow the Englishman to take third place, but only after embarrassingly heading to the wrong pits while making a stop.

As for his former team, McLaren, there was another pit-stop error which wrecked Button's race at a time when he was likely to finish fifth and in the end he limped home in 17th, one place behind fellow Englishman Max Chilton’s Malrussia car.