F1: There's Alon way to go in title battle, says Fernando

Alonso spearheaded a Ferrari one-two at yesterday's Bahrain Grand Prix for his 22nd career victory, his first since Japan in 2008, and third at the Sakhir circuit.

If omens are anything to go by, on the previous two occasions Alonso won this race he went on to win the title in 2005 and 2006, when he was in his first spell with Renault.

There was a degree of fortune to the triumph as Sebastian Vettel was on course for a pole-to-flag success until a spark plug failure resulted in a loss of power for the Red Bull driver.

Dropping two to three seconds per lap, Vettel was caught by Alonso and then Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa in the space of 20 seconds, as well as McLaren's Lewis Hamilton to finish fourth.

Despite such a convincing win for Alonso, who finished 16 seconds clear of Massa, with Hamilton a further seven seconds adrift, the Spaniard knows one race win does not make a championship.

"The eight drivers in the top four teams are contenders for the championship," said Alonso, who left Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher trailing by over 40 seconds in fifth and sixth, whilst reigning champion Jenson Button was seventh.

"This is only the first race, but we saw the potential of Mercedes in free practice and the first qualifying period as well.

"We also saw the potential of the McLaren in the race as they were on the podium.

"And we saw the potential of Red Bull as they were quicker than us in qualifying, and maybe a little quicker than us in the race.

"Of course, with Felipe, who is in the same car, there will be races one of us will win and some races the other will win.

"It will all come down to each track. In Bahrain, for whatever reason, it went well for us.

"Maybe when we go to Australia for the next race (on 28 March), Mercedes, McLaren or whoever are a little ahead of everybody."

Regardless of who wins in Melbourne, there was no disguising the 28-year-old's delight at a win he hailed as "special."

"It means a lot," said Alonso, signed by Ferrari a year earlier than they had planned after losing patience with Kimi Raikkonen.

"Returning to the top of the podium is always special, but this is even more so with Ferrari, with all the history behind the team.

"There is no better way to start the relationship. I am in the best team in the world. This win will never be forgotten." Vettel, who this season has christened his car "Luscious Liz", was left counting the cost of another reliability issue as it was such trouble that undermined his title bid last season in "Kate's Dirty Sister".

"It's a pity, but what can you do," shrugged Vettel. "From Saturday onwards, we were one of the quickest cars on track in all conditions, and then we had control of the race and were on top of the strategy. Everything was running smoothly. But then, at some stage, I think about 15 to 20 laps from the end, you could see my lap times were getting slower. Luckily we could continue and finished fourth, but we should have won. It cost us a lot."

Behind Button, with the top ten scoring points this season, Mark Webber was eighth for Red Bull, followed by Vitantonio Liuzzi in his Force India and Williams' Rubens Barrichello.

Of the newcomers, Lotus made a dream start with Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli finishing 15th and 17th.

As for Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing, their drivers all retired for one reason or another by lap 18.

Hamilton believes McLaren are just a step away from competing for grands prix wins this season.

Although the 25-year-old finished 25 seconds adrift of Alonso, Hamilton was encouraged by his second half of the race.

That came after the first pit stop, now limited to simply a tyre change due to a ban on refuelling, when he managed to leapfrog the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, who had held up the Briton early on. Hamilton knows McLaren are not on the pace with Ferrari and Red Bull but he also appreciates they are not that far away either as he said: "I think we saw the true pace of our car after the first pit stop.

"I was right on Nico's tail for the whole of the first stint, but unfortunately I wasn't able to pull out the time I needed.

"The Ferrari guys were just pulling away. I would come onto the back straight and they were already around the next corner.

"The gap increased and there was nothing I could do at that time, but as soon as I got in some clean air and there were some new tyres on, the car felt great.

"The pace I had was quite good, so it's good to know we were able to match it and do similar times to the guys at the front.

"It shows we're not as far away as we thought we may have been, so we're not in a bad position. We just need to try to make a step closer to them which will enable us to compete for the win."