Ferrari secure one-two

Massa leapt from third to first at the start of the race, with Alonso slotting in behind him as poleman Sebastian Vettel - who finished on the podium - fell back to third.

The Brazilian was de facto leader until Alonso moved past on lap 49 of 67, soon after Ferrari had asked engineer Rob Smedley to tell him: "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?"

The next message from Smedley was: "Well done. Good lad. Now try and keep with him. I'm sorry."

Ferrari were fined $100,000 over the incident and could face further FIA sanctions having been referred to that body's world motorsport council, which can impose unlimited penalties.

It is Ferrari's first one-two since the opening race of the season in Bahrain and they showed the greater pace throughout.

Vettel was also quick and closed the gap on Massa in the final laps, but did not get close enough to launch an attack.

The German's Red Bull team-mate Webber struggled to match him and was passed by Lewis Hamilton early on to drop to fifth ahead of Jenson Button in the other McLaren.

The opening pitstops saw Button lead briefly, and the reigning champion exhibited strong pace on the wearing super-soft tyres to oust Webber from fifth after he had eventually come in.

That was the finishing order behind the front three, Hamilton all alone by the end to claim a comfortable 12 points with Button picking up 10 and Webber eight in the fight for the title.

It keeps the 2008 champion top with 157 points from Button (143), Vettel and Webber (both 136). Alonso's victory moves him on to 123.

Ferrari were convinced that Alonso had the greater pace despite both their drivers setting fastest laps throughout the race, as did Vettel. Before Alonso took the lead, he had uttered "this is ridiculous" over the radio in response to Massa shutting the door on an overtaking move.

Until Massa dropped off him following the changeover, they had been within three seconds of one another throughout - and this while passing a multitude of backmarkers.

Robert Kubica of Renault was seventh ahead of Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, who enjoyed a late battle for position. Amazingly all were lapped by the front three drivers.

Vitaly Petrov, also of Renault, completed the points positions.

Things did not go so well for Toro Rosso and Force India.

The former's drivers made contact with one another on the opening lap, smashing off Sebastien Buemi's rear wing and forcing him to retire while Jaime Alguersuari had to slice through the backmarkers for a 15th-place finish having damaged the front of his car.

Force India inexplicably put the wrong tyres on each car and they had to be swapped over in the early laps. Tonio Liuzzi came in twice in that period and finished 16th ahead of team-mate Adrian Sutil.

The Saubers and both Williams filled places 11 to 14 while Timo Glock won the 'new teams' race for Virgin, taking 18th after Jarno Trulli was forced out of the race.

Bruno Senna was the only other finisher as his temporary Hispania colleague Sakon Yamamoto, Trulli's Lotus team-mate Heikki Kovalainen and Virgin's Lucas di Grassi all retired at various stages of the race.