Mclaren's Lewis Hamilton celebrated his first win of the Formula 1 season in Turkey yesterday after his Red Bull rivals drove each other off the track while heading for a one-two finish.

In a dramatic finale to the race at Istanbul Park, championship leader Mark Webber and Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel collided 18 laps from the finish while running first and second to gift McLaren the one-two.

Hamilton's victory ended a run of nine races without appearing on the top step of the podium, the 25-year-old's last win coming in Singapore last September.

McLaren came perilously close to a similar nightmare, with Hamilton and world champion teammate Jenson Button running side by side and banging wheels in a furious battle for the lead. Button finished 2.6sec behind Hamilton in second place.

Australian Webber, who had been heading for his third win in a row after starting on pole position, finished third to extend his overall lead to five points.

Webber leads the standings with 93, while the McLaren duo moved up the standings, with Button now in second with 88 and Hamilton third with 84.

The day's big loser was Vettel, the 22-year-old German who had started the afternoon level on points with Webber at the top of the standings, but who paid the price for trying to pass the Australian down the inside on lap 40.

The two cars collided, Vettel's right rear tyre deflated and he spun off into retirement, while Webber went off the track but managed to come back.

Vettel slumped to fifth overall, 15 points behind Webber.

Until then, Red Bull had looked to be heading for their third one-two of the season and second in a row.

Webber held off Hamilton for lap after lap until Vettel got ahead at the pit-stops.

Michael Schumacher finished fourth for Mercedes, the seven-time champion a hefty 31.1 sec behind Hamilton, with teammate and fellow-German Nico Rosberg fifth.

Poland's Robert Kubica was sixth for Renault and Felipe Massa gave Ferrari some points with a seventh ahead of Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso.