Ron Dennis says there were some issues with Button’s Energy Recovery System and adds it would have likely failed if McLaren started the race.

While the reigning world champion always looked in control at the front, there was a thrilling battle for the trio of places behind him with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen coming out on top to score his first podium of 2015.

Raikkonen also closed on Hamilton, who had some late brake worries, but the Briton stayed clear.

Nico Rosberg finished third, ahead of Williams’s Valtteri Bottas and the other Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel in the first night race of the season.

Hamilton made a clean start from pole, with Vettel going defensive and successfully holding on to second. That backed Rosberg up, allowing Raikkonen to snatch third.

However, Rosberg battled his way back past Raikkonen and then took advantage of Vettel running wide at Turn 1 to close and then pass at the same corner next time around.

Ferrari successfully used the undercut to jump Rosberg at the first round of pitstops, but Vettel was then distracted by Hamilton exiting the pitlane and Rosberg took advantage – diving down the inside of Turn 1 to retake second.

The Scuderia repeated the undercut trick at the second stops and again it worked, with Vettel jumping Rosberg, but another mistake by Vettel, this time running wide at the final corner, allowed Rosberg back through.

That slip also caused front wing damage for Vettel and forced him to pit for repairs.

Raikkonen then started catching Rosberg in the final stint of the race, as he was running the softer of the two compound tyres.

And the Finn capitalised when Rosberg – who also had brake problems – ran wide at Turn 1 in the closing laps, allowing the Ferrari to snatch second.

Vettel dropped to fifth with his extra pitstop and could not get back past Bottas despite a long chase.

Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault engine let go coming out of the final corner of the last lap, but he managed to cross the line to take sixth for Red Bull.

os	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	1h35m05.809s
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	3.380s
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	6.033s
4	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing	Williams/Mercedes	42.957s
5	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	43.989s
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing	Red Bull/Renault	1m01.751s
7	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team	Lotus/Mercedes	1m24.763s
8	Sergio Perez	Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India/Mercedes	1 Lap
9	Daniil Kvyat	Infiniti Red Bull Racing	Red Bull/Renault	1 Lap
10	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing	Williams/Mercedes	1 Lap
11	Fernando Alonso	McLaren Honda	McLaren/Honda	1 Lap
12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber/Ferrari	1 Lap
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India/Mercedes	1 Lap
14	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber/Ferrari	1 Lap
15	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team	Lotus/Mercedes	1 Lap
16	Will Stevens	Manor Marussia F1 Team	Marussia/Ferrari	2 Laps
17	Roberto Merhi	Manor Marussia F1 Team	Marussia/Ferrari	3 Laps
–	Max Verstappen	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso/Renault	Retirement
–	Carlos Sainz	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso/Renault	Retirement
–	Jenson Button	McLaren Honda	McLaren/Honda	Not started