Fernando Alonso, the former double world champion, won the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix for Renault yesterday but even he was prepared to admit that the real winner, for once, was Formula One itself.

The risk taken by Singapore and by Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights holder, in staging the sport’s first night race under floodlights on a new street track paid off in champagne style as a packed house at the Marina Bay circuit and millions around the world tuned in to watch the highlight of the season.

Never before has the world’s most glamorous sport glistened and glowed, smoked and sparkled, quite like it did under 1,500 spotlights in the Far East where a race complete with smashes, slapstick pitlane comedy from Ferrari and even, dare one say it, overtaking, provided a compelling spectacle against a stunning city backdrop.

“It was a great weekend for all of us,” Alonso, who took the advantage of a safety-car interruption to grab his first win since last year, said. “It was a brilliant weekend for Formula One with the first night race. We had a new challenge in front of us and we will be part of history.”

The Spaniard is spot on with that assessment; there is no doubt that the resounding success of Singapore is going to unleash the floodlights for other Asian races - Japan, China, Malaysia, plus possibly Australia. There is also talk of using the Singapore model in Europe for early and late-season night “spectaculars”. Formula One has hit a new jackpot just when it needs it; races that look better than ever and that can be staged at times that will attract the biggest possible audiences.

A success it may have been for Singapore but the grand prix was an abject disaster for Ferrari as Felipe Massa, their championship contender, went from an excellent pole position on Saturday to finishing third-last. Not for the first time this season, this was the result of a howler for the Scuderia in the pitlane during refuelling that saw the Brazilian leave with the fuel hose attached to his car.

While Kimi Raikkonen, Massa’s teammate, ended up in the concrete wall three laps from the end, Lewis Hamilton, of Great Britain, took a big stride towards his first world title, by managing to resist the temptation to take unwarranted risks and finishing third, a result which extends his lead over Massa from one to seven points with only three races left.

“We came through a tough weekend and got some good points so I am very, very happy,” Hamilton said. He never looks happy when he does not win and this was no exception. “It is all about scoring points,” he added. “We came here with a one-point lead and I could see Ferrari were very competitive. I knew it would be tough to beat them and, especially after the start, I could see I was behind.” Like everyone at McLaren, Hamilton is haunted by the disastrous end-of-season collapse last year in which he surrendered a 17-point lead to lose the title race by one point. He insisted his lead this time will not make him change his more conservative approach in the remaining races. “We are going to approach the next few races exactly the same,” he said. “We have a competitive package to compete with them but I have no doubt it will be a very tough battle.”

If McLaren had a gripe, it was once again with the stewards and what some in the paddock saw as the surprisingly long delay in announcing an investigation into an illegal pit-stop by Nico Rosberg, the Williams driver. The German finished second after being able to improve his track position considerably while awaiting the inevitable penalty. Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren chief executive, was, however, reluctant to make an issue of it.