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Sakhir, Bahrain. Fernando Alonso won Sunday’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix to lead a Ferrari 1-2 on his debut for the Italian Formula One team.

The Spaniard passed teammate Felipe Massa at the second corner after the start before overtaking pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel on the 34th lap for a lead he would never relinquish.

After two frustrating years at Renault, Alonso pounded his chest after jumping on top of his car as Ferrari got off to its best start since 2004, when Schumacher led a 1-2 start. He replaced Kimi Raikkonen, who also won on his Ferrari debut three years ago.

“A very special day for me, coming back to the top of the podium is always special, but also more special with Ferrari and the history of the team and the expectations,” Alonso said. “There is no better way to start the relationship.”

Massa passed Vettel soon after to claim second on his return to racing after a life-threatening crash last July in Hungary.

Lewis Hamilton overtook Vettel at the same spot as the McLaren driver finished third ahead of his Red Bull opponent.

Nico Rosberg was more than 40 seconds behind Alonso in fifth place. Mercedes teammate Michael Schumacher, who started seventh, was sixth in his first race in three years.

Alonso and Ferrari confirmed their preseason expectations as title favorites after the two-time champion’s 22nd career victory. It was Alonso’s third win at the Middle East track but first since 2006, when he won his last title.

Alonso worked his way up behind Vettel, who had won four of his six previous races from pole, to set up his pass at the final corner before the finish line.

“I was waiting for the time to attack Vettel — maybe the last 10 laps — but suddenly he had a car problem and we had a chance to overtake him earlier than we expected,” Alonso said after his first victory since the 2008 Japanese GP. “[It’s] a fantastic sensation.”

Massa pulled up to Vettel on the same stretch before going around last year’s championship runner-up at the first corner, where Hamilton passed the German driver four laps later. Massa had to lay up over the last 30 laps to save fuel and his tires.

“I’m very happy. It’s also the best start of my season,” Massa said. “I rode through the race normal, with very good pace.”

Schumacher’s new team, Mercedes, showed it still has some work to do to provide him with a car worthy of an eighth title. Schumacher finished 3.9 seconds behind Rosberg.

Defending champion Jenson Button finished seventh for McLaren, while Mark Webber of Red Bull was eighth.

Tonio Liuzzi of Force India and Rubens Barrichello of Williams rounded out the top 10 to finish in the points following a change in the scoring system.

Ferrari changed both of its engines without penalty before the start as a precaution, but there was little caution from Alonso as the Spaniard held the inside position to pass Massa into second after a relatively clean start from the 22 cars on the grid.

Rosberg jumped in front of Hamilton with Schumacher behind him after getting ahead of Webber, whose engine spewed smoke to blind Renault’s Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil of Force India. Those two spun out in the confusion to drop out of the top 10.



Associated Press