Alonso triumphs in China

FERNANDO ALONSO got his first win of the season with victory at the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Spaniard finished 10 seconds ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who was in second place while Lewis Hamilton, who started on pole, had to settle for third spot on the podium.
Alonso gave a faultless performance here after he crashed out in the previous race in Malaysia as he made up for lost points.
Reigning champion Sebastian Vettel mounted a late charge on Hamilton but had to settle for fourth spot in the end, while McLaren’s Jenson Button was in fifth.
Alonso said: "It was a fantastic race for us, from the start to the end.
"After Malaysia we had pressure to finish the race — the start of this 2013 campaign is looking very good so we are very optimistic.
"You always push, it's impossible not to push when you are thinking about the state of the tyres. We hope we can push on in Bahrain."
Hamilton added: "I'm really happy with the result and happy with the points.
"Unfortunately we didn't have quite the pace that these two had, but I'm very happy to be on the podium again."

MAKE MY SPRAY ... Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen celebrate with Fernando Alonso

Meanwhile, Mark Webber’s miserable three weeks continued after he was forced to retire when his rear wheel fell off.
Hamilton made a fantastic start from pole and managed to get away from Raikkonen, who struggled for traction on the start line.
The Finn’s sluggish start allowed the Ferrari duo of Felipe Massa and Alonso to pass and they quickly set about charging down the Brit.

PASS MASTERS ... Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso get past Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton tried to pull clear but could not find the necessary speed to open up the necessary one-second gap that would have prevented him from being dragged into a DRS battle with the Ferraris.
And by lap five, first Alonso and then Massa were able to benefit from the DRS boost to breeze past Hamilton, who was defenceless to stop them.
There was more drama for the Force India team, who suffered from hot wheel nuts in the last race which meant they could not change their drivers’ tyres and they both had to retire.
Here their two drivers, Paul Di Resta and Adrian Sutil collided with each other early on but both managed to continue.
However, Sutil then suffered damage to his rear wing in a fight with Esteban Gutierrez, and as his mechanics battled to repair the damage, the broken wing caught fire on the overheated brake discs.
That forced the German to retire while Sauber’s Gutierrez also crashed off after the collision.
There was even more drama when Webber inexplicably crashed into Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne on lap 15.

WE'RE JAMMIN' ... Drivers take the second corner on the first lap

The Aussie, who was forced to start this race from the pit lane after running out of fuel during qualifying, was making good progress through the field.
However, he left Vergne no room and the driver for Red Bull’s sister team, was t-boned by Webber, forcing both drivers into the pits.
As if that was not bad enough, Webber emerged from the pit lane but started to slow on lap 17 sensing a problem with the rear of his car.
And he was not wrong, as his rear right wheel fell off. He left his car stricken by the side of the track and had to walk back to the garage on foot.
There were even more incidents when Raikkonen smashed into the back of Sergio Perez, causing the Lotus’ driver to blast “what the hell is he doing!” over the team’s radio.
But while all the drama was going on, Button was quietly scything his way to the front of the pack as he benefitted from his decision to start on the harder medium tyres.
He pushed on for as long as he could but in the end he had no answer to Alonso’s pace, as the Spaniard breezed past Button in front of the main grandstand.
Vettel was next to pass Button, along with his former McLaren teammate Hamilton. Raikkonen then dropped Button to fifth in the space of 10 laps when he sailed by.
Alonso was able to maintain his position while another pitstop shuffled the order once again which put Button back into the mix.

TOP OF THE WORLD ... Fernando Alonso celebrates

However, he had to get used to more leapfrogging, as the same candidates flew past while he tried to nurse his tyres for as long as possible.
The tyres were always going to be crucial here, meaning the final six laps were as dramatic as the first six.
Button pitted on lap 50 and the new rubber allowed him to press forward. But of course there were stops for the other drivers, allowing them all to set about hunting down Alonso.
But the Spaniard’s lead was too great as he coasted to victory, while further back Vettel was desperately charging down Hamilton, making it a thrilling battle for third spot, but Hamilton clung on.