Ferrari's Fernando Alonso scored a dramatic victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday when the Spaniard denied Sauber's Sergio Perez a first Formula One triumph in a race turned on its head by the weather.

The race started in torrential rain and was stopped for 51 minutes after eight laps but Alonso took charge on its resumption to register a shock 28th career victory in a car that had been outpaced in qualifying in the opening two rounds.

'A big surprise today the win,' Alonso told reporters. 'Our goal was to score as many points as possible. An unbelievable result, a great job from the team.'     

The victory took the double world champion past Jackie Stewart into fifth in the all-time win standings but Alonso will enjoy the moment while he can, aware that his Ferrari remains well off the pace in dry conditions.

Pole sitter Lewis Hamilton repeated his third place finish from the opening race of the season in Melbourne last weekend, with Red Bull's Mark Webber in fourth and 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen fifth in his Lotus.

Australia race winner Jenson Button and current world champion Sebastian Vettel, who was running fourth at the time, both suffered mid-race collisions with the HRT of Narain Karthikeyan and finished outside the points. - Reuters