Alonso battles as Vettel dominates

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel began the new season in Australia as he ended the last in Abu Dhabi: with a resounding victory for Red Bull, his third in a row. Lewis Hamilton was second in the McLaren with Russian Vitaly Petrov a brilliant and surprising third in a Renault.

Fernando Alonso finished the race in fourth place in his Ferrari. Spain's other driver, Jaime Alguersuari, was 11th in the Toro Rosso.

As Vettel rocketed off from the front of the grid and never looked back, the Asturian suffered a nightmare start. He slid from fifth to ninth as Petrov zoomed past from sixth and was then forced wide at the first corner to avoid a clash with the McLaren of Jenson Button.

Fighting back Alonso quickly passed Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Rosberg, before receiving a little help from teammate Felipe Massa when the Brazilian's frustrations of Button's overtaking attempts caused the Englishman to jump a chicane and incur a drive-through penalty. The incident allowed him to skip past Button and Massa and move into fifth behind Australian Mark Webber in the second Red Bull, whom he finally got past on his last pit stop.

"With a good start, it would have been a more relaxed race, but with the same result," Alonso told La Sexta TV after the race. "I would have ended fourth or third."

The Spaniard also had reason to be cheerful over the competitiveness of his car. "Yesterday it looked like the Red Bulls were on another planet," he said. "With the rhythm they had in qualifying, it looked like they were going to lap us during the race. But that didn't happen and we managed to finish with Webber behind us. We will make it difficult in the upcoming races."

Lewis Hamilton also called his second place a "great achievement" after McLaren's poor performance in pre-season testing, while Petrov was "ecstatic" with his podium finish.

Although the talk before the start had been about the effect the new softer-wearing Pirelli tires would have, it was the Sauber's back end that had tongues wagging at the close.

Twenty-one-year-old Mexican Sergio Pérez had made a dream Formula 1 debut with a seventh-placed finish. But no sooner had he had time to bask momentarily in the glory than he and his Sauber teammate Kobayashi were disqualified for infringing regulations over the design of their car's rear wing. The team says it intends to appeal the decision.