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Alonso marks Ferrari debut with Bahrain victory
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-03-15 09:13
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 Mercedes Formula One driver Michael Schumacher of Germany drives during the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix at Sakhir circuit in Manama March 14, 2010. [Agencies]
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"There is always pressure with every race, every test you go into," Alonso said after earning the season's first 25 points. "You live with stress on your shoulders."
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 straight.
"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, and Hamilton said he just ran out of laps as he pushed to catch the Brazilian.
"We had a good day. Our race pace was a lot stronger (than expected)," Hamilton said. "If I wasn't behind Nico for the first half of the race, I could have been closer to the front."
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.
The leading drivers didn't begin to pit until lap 16, while Vettel was the last to change to hard tires - after 17 laps - in the hot desert heat for a 3.5-second gap over Alonso. But the Ferrari improved on the hard tires to gain before jumping on the Red Bull exhaust problem.
"We've done nothing so far, we've just won the first race," Alonso said.
Lotus was the only new team to classify as Heikki Kovalainen finished 15th and Jarno Trulli was awarded last place after retiring with three laps remaining. Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing both failed to classify.
