Singapore  - Renault's Fernando Alonso scored his first win of the season Sunday when he took an eventful Singapore Formula One night Grand Prix ahead of Nico Rosberg of Williams.

Two-time world champion Alonso claimed the 20th F1 win of his career with a winning time of 1 hour 57 minutes 16.304 seconds for the 61 laps of the 5.067 kilometres for a race distance of 309.087 kilometres.

Third place in the first ever F1 night race under floodlights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit went to championship leader Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren-Mercedes, who extends his lead over main rival Felipe Massa after the Ferrari driver finished down in 13th spot after a pit stop disaster.

Toyota's Timo Glock came home in fourth spot, followed by Italian GP winner Sebastian Vettel of Toro Rosso. BMW's Nick Heidfeld finished sixth with David Coulthard of Red Bull and Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima completing the points placings.

"I cannot believe it right now. I need a couple of days to realise that we won a race this year," said Alonso. "Here, suddenly we have been competitive since Friday."

Massa started from pole position and led comfortably in the early stages but all hope of victory and a chance of championship points ended for the Brazilian when he drove off with the fuel hose still attached at his first pit stop.

Hamilton's podium finish sees the 23-year-old move on to 84 points in the drivers' standings with Massa remaining on 77 and Robert Kubica of BMW-Sauber third on 64 points.

Massa got off to the perfect start, easily beating Hamilton into the first corner while the McLaren driver had to concern himself with preventing Massa's teammate Kimi Raikkonen from overtaking him on the inside.

However, the race turned when Renault's Nelson Piquet Jr crashed on lap 15, forcing the safety car to be deployed.

Rosberg and Kubica were forced to pit while the pit lane was closed and both picked up a 10-second stop-and-go penalty as a result.

"I was really annoyed I thought 'this is it, this is the end of it'," said Rosberg, whose second-place finish is the best in his career.

"We had a good chance this weekend and everything went our way."

Once the pit lane re-opened both Massa and Hamilton pitted but the Brazilian's stop was a disaster as he pulled away with the fuel nozzle still attached and into the path of Adrian Sutil's Force India car.

Massa pulled over at the end of the pit lane and Ferrari mechanics were able to run up and release the fuel rig so he could return to the race in last place.

The Ferrari driver lost further time as he was given a drive- through penalty by race stewards for an unsafe release from the pit stop.

Once Rosberg and Kubica took their penalties and Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli made their first stops, Alonso, who started down in 15th place as a result of a fuel system problem in qualifying, found himself leading from Rosberg with 28 laps to go.

"Unlucky in qualifying but lucky today," was how Alonso summed up his weekend.

Hamilton was situated down in fourth behind veteran Coulthard, who took full advantage of Piquet Jr's accident by pitting immediately before the safety car phase.

"We had great pace generally," said Hamilton. "Unfortunately I got stuck behind DC (Coulthard) so it was so difficult to get close."

Rosberg pitted for the final time with 21 laps remaining and Alonso in the next lap, coming out as race leader in front of Coulthard and Hamilton.

The McLaren driver finally managed to overtake the Red Bull driver before immediately pitting and Coulthard lost further ground on Hamilton, with a stuttering exit from his pit stop that saw him come out behind Trulli.

The safety car came out for a second time with 11 laps remaining when Sutil crashed, slashing Alonso's comfortable lead at the front and causing the leaders to bunch up for the final stages.

However, Alonso comfortably maintained his leading position ahead of Rosberg and Hamilton while Ferrari's miserable day was compounded when defending world champion Raikkonen crashed out with four laps remaining while running in fifth spot.

The F1 season continues on October 12 with the Japanese GP at the Fuji Speedway.