The sudden retirement of World Champion Sebastian Vettel on his first lap with a shredded front tire left the field open for Lewis Hamilton to surge to victory. The TAG Heuer ambassador had started the race in second position.

Hamilton’s win looked assured for most of the race; however, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso briefly led the race between 41st and 43rd laps. By the flag, Alonso trailed the Englishman by more than eight seconds.

Hamilton’s teammate and fellow TAG Heuer Ambassador Jenson Button started from second on the grid, but was overtaken early on by the Ferrari. His chances of a 1-2 finish for McLaren were damaged by a faulty KERS system that damaged the TAG Heuer Ambassadors acceleration performance. His place would have been under pressure from Mark Webber. However, the Australian Red Bull Racing driver was plagued by an extremely slow early pit stop of 9.4 seconds, that effected his placing, leaving him nearly 10 seconds behind Mark Webber.

The season concludes on 27th November 2011 after the final race in Sao Paulo, Brazil.