It was in fact Alonso's teammate Felipe Massa who led for most of the race after a brilliant start which saw him swoop around both Alonso and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel while Vettel was concentrating on trying to push Alonso into the wall and Alonso was intent on trying to stop him doing so!

Alonso managed to stay on his line and kept Vettel at bay, and that's how the race panned out, save for lead changes when they went in for tyres - and that's how it should have ended.

However Massa's dream of victory, a year after an accident that nearly killed him and stymied his grand prix career for six months, ended when orders were sent over the team radio which clearly instructed him to move over and let Alonso - who has more points in this year's championship - take the lead.

The instruction was so blatant that the race engineer instructed to convey the message from Ferrari management even apologised to the Brazilian!

Ironically it was a similar race fixing move eight years ago by Ferrari when Rubens Barrichello had to move over for Michael Schumacher that got motor sport's governing body to ban "team orders", and again it's Ferrari which is in the midst of the controversy - a controversy which may well still see the team lose all its points from the race.

The irony is that the Ferraris were certainly deserved winners of the race, no matter who took the flag, and it would be a pity to see them lose constructors' points.

The Ferraris showed they now have legs to match those of the Red Bull team, and with the tight Hungarian Grand Prix coming up, it is still anybody's championship.

Meanwhile the two McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button soldiered on to gain fourth and fifth, never at any time challenging the leading trio, while sixth spot went to Vettel's teammate Mark Webber.

Oil consumption

Webber made a poor start from fourth place on the grid, and battled throughout the race with high oil consumption on his Renault-powered Red Bull which forced him to maintain a steady pace without trying to catch the McLarens.

Seventh place went to Renault's Robert Kubica - lapped by the leaders - followed by the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher, with Renault's Vitaly Petrov taking the final championship point in 10th place.

BMW Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa had a great race but had his front wing chopped off by Lotus's Heikki Kovalainen when he rejoined the race after his compulsory tyre change - resulting in Kovalainen's retirement - and finally ended 14th, but his teammate Kamui Kobayashi took over the 11th spot, a good finish.

Next up were the Williams pair of Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, followed by Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso, who survived a first-lap coming-together, unlike his teammate Sebastien Buemi who lost his rear wing and retired.

In 16th and 17th were Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil, who were both mixed up in the start melee, then had to pit again as it was discovered they had been given each other's tyres, which is against the rules, and had to make a third tyre stop.

The team was reprimanded by the stewards even though they rectified the mistake. How many times do they need to be punished?

The final finishers were Timo Glock in the Virgin and Bruno Senna's HRT.

As it stands at the moment the top five sees Lewis Hamilton on 157 points leading the drivers' championship from his team-mate Jenson Button, who has 143 points, with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel sharing 136 points and Alonso on 123.

In the constructors' series McLaren-Mercedes has 300 with Red Bull on 272, Ferrari on 208, Mercedes GP 132 and Renault 96.

The next race is in Hungary in a week's time, followed by a three-week mid-summer break.