Alonso wins season opener

Alonso produced the defining move of the Bahrain Grand Prix at the end of lap 34 of the 49-lap race, passing a backpedalling Sebastian Vettel at that stage, before going on to claim the 22nd win of his career, and third at the Sakhir circuit.

Suffering a loss of power, polesitter Vettel had led throughout up until that point, eventually finishing an unhappy fourth as Felipe Massa and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton also made their moves past the young German to stand on the podium.

It was Ferrari's first one-two since the French Grand Prix in June 2008, and Alonso's first victory since Japan the same year when he was with Renault.

If omens are anything to go by, on the previous two occasions Alonso won this race he went on to win the title in 2005 and 2006 when he was in his first spell with the French manufacturer.

Behind the leading quartet, Mercedes' return to F1 as a fully-fledged manufacturer for the first time in 55 years saw them finish fifth and sixth, with Nico Rosberg narrowly ahead of seven-times champion Michael Schumacher on his return to the sport after three-and-a-half years in retirement.

As for Jenson Button, it was not the performance he would have wanted on his debut for McLaren and on his first outing in defence of the title he won last year.

The 30-year-old finished just a second behind the 41-year-old German, with Mark Webber eighth in his Red Bull.

With the top 10 scoring points this year, Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi was ninth and Rubens Barrichello 10th in his debut for Williams.