Sebastian Vettel came across the line in fourth place, despite serving a drive-through penalty and suffering with a broken diffuser, beating the lead Brawn of Jenson Button, who started in 12th and finished one place ahead of his closest championship challenger and team-mate, Rubens Barrichello.
Thunder threatened just before the race got underway, but the rain held off for the start, but the rain held off.
It was a clean getaway from everybody in the field, with Rosberg getting the best start and leaping ahead of Vettel for second place.
Timo Glock got a good start and jumped ahead of Alonso and Webber for fourth place.
As the field streaked around the first lap, Webber and Alonso fought hard for fifth, but a few laps later, the Aussie making a robust move around the outside of the double world champion at turn seven.
A few laps later, this move was deemed to be illegal by the race stewards and he was ordered to drop back behind Alonso.
Hamilton set one fastest lap after another during his first stint, despite suffering a glitch with his KERS system; a problem that McLaren worked overnight to solve before third practice.
Rosberg held on to Hamilton and was able to match the outgoing champion’s pace, even setting a time in the 1m48s.
Barrichello held on to seventh place at the start behind Webber’s Red Bull.
His team-mate Button was in tenth, but he was running well off the front running pace in the 1m51s, which wouldn’t be enough to get him into a points-paying position by the end of the race.
Everybody’s first stops were clean and the order remained the same at the front, although Rosberg was later handed a drive-through penalty for crossing the white line at the exit of the pit-lane, after bumping over a kerb.
Rosberg had to wait before serving his penalty, as an accident involving Adrian Sutil and Nick Heidfeld brought out the safety car.
The Force India driver span at turn 14 and, as he tried to correct the spin, he accelerated into the side of Heidfeld’s BMW, causing him to spin and retire from the race.
This incident is being investigated by the race stewards and could result in a grid penalty for Sutil in Suzuka.
The mid-field runners reacted quickly to the safety car intervention by coming in early for their stops.
Button got in and out of the pits for his first stop cleanly and he rejoined in eighth place, crucially just behind his team-mate Barrichello.
The safety car returned to the pits and Rosberg served his drive-through two laps later, only to fall right to the back of the field.
The Williams driver came in for his second and final stop wit about 27 laps left in the race to take on the super-soft option tyres, and he started to make progress back up the field, passing Alguersuari for 16th place.
As a result of Rosberg’s penalty Glock in the Toyota inherited third place and he pegged the gap to the leading pair to five seconds.
Vettel then pitted for his second stop from second place on lap 39, but he was also given a drive-through for speeding in the pitlane.
The young German served his penalty and dropped to a provisional ninth place ahead of Raikkonen in the first of the Ferraris.
Webber was then the next to pit and he was delayed while the Red Bull crew checked his braked for debris.
The Aussie was released back into 14th place, just in front of Rosberg, but he would throw his RB5 into the barrier between turns one and two just a lap later.
The threat of another safety car period brought race-leader Hamilton into the pits for his final stop and he was followed in by his team-mate Kovalainen, who was being hustled by Button.
The safety car didn’t appear on circuit, but this still worked well for Hamilton.
Both Brawns jumped into fifth and sixth after their stops, with Alonso and Vettel ahead of them, Button leaping ahead of Barrichello.
Button immediately set about chasing down Vettel, who had a broken diffuser, knowing that Webber retired with brake issues.
Meanwhile, at the front, Hamilton had a comfortable lead, while Glock found himself with a six second advantage over Alonso in third.
But, in the final laps of the race, Vettel, Button and Barrichello were instructed by their teams to back off and to bring their cars home, as all three were struggling with their brakes.
Hamilton brought his McLaren across the line to take his second victory of 2009, ahead of Glock and Alonso.
Vettel closes the gap in the championship to Barrichello with his fourth place, although Button has increased his lead over the Brazilian by finishing one place ahead of his main championship rival.
Button now leads by 15 points over Barrichello with three races left in the 2009 season.
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