Enstone's Renault F1 team will not relax despite a dominant start to the season, according to team boss Flavio Briatore.

World champion Fernando Alonso won the Australian Grand Prix to make it three wins from three for the Oxfordshire team this season.

But Briatore is not resting on his laurels despite that start, which has given Alonso a 14-point championship lead and his team a 19-point advantage.

He said: "This was a fantastic win for Fernando. He had a great car and he controlled the race from start to finish.

"There were a lot of complicated situations to deal with, and he did it brilliantly.

"We scored a lot more points than our rivals. We are in a strong position, but we will keep on pushing."

Alonso won the race from McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, with Jenson Button nowhere to be seen despite his pole position.

The Honda driver led for three laps before tyre problems saw him drop out of contention and he eventually retired within sight of the chequered flag after an engine failure.

Honda boss Nick Fry revealed the team ordered Button not to cross the line in sixth place with his engine on fire as that would have brought a ten-place grid penalty for the next race in San Marino.

As it is, Button is judged to have served sufficient penalty for an engine failure with his retirement, although Fry confessed his team's decision was still open to question.

"The race engineer had to make a call in about two seconds," he said "At least he took a decision.

"We need to look at the pros and cons of that, but at least it avoids a penalty for the next race.

"We lost some points for this race but we have got some improvements for Imola and we don't want to lose places there."

Ralf Schumacher brought a smile back to Toyota technical director Mike Gascoyne on his 43rd birthday with a surprise third place despite a nightmare start to the year.

Fellow German Nick Heidfeld scored the best result of BMW-Sauber's debut season with fourth and team-mate Jacques Villeneuve added three more points for sixth. Giancarlo Fisichella was fifth for Renault.

Button's team-mate Rubens Barrichello was off the pace all day. but scraped into the points in seventh, just ahead of Scott Speed.

The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver thought he had made history with eighth place but was stripped of the point, which would have been the first for his team and the first for an American since 1993.

Speed overtook Red Bull's David Coulthard under a yellow flag and was penalised 25 seconds, earning the Scot his 500th career point.

Speed was also fined about £3,000 for swearing at Coulthard during a stewards' hearing.

Results: 57 Laps: 1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1hr 34mins 27.870secs, 2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 1:34:29.699, 3 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:34:52.694, 4 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:34:58.902, 5 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:35:06.291, 6 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) BMW Sauber 1:35:17.170, 7 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda 1:35:19.770, 8 Scott Speed (USA) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:35:21.670, 9 David Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 1:35:21.770, 10 Jenson Button (Gbr) Honda at 1 lap, 11 Christijan Albers (Ned) Midland at 1 lap, 12 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri at 2 laps, 13 Yuji Ide (Jpn) Super Aguri at 3 laps Not Classified: 14 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 46 laps completed, 15 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Midland 39 laps completed, 16 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Scuderia Toro Rosso 37 laps completed, 17 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 32 laps completed, 18 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 22 laps completed, 19 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 4 laps completed, 20 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams no laps completed, 21 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota no laps completed, 22 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari no laps completed

Fastest Lap: Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 1min 26.045secs on lap 57

World Championship Standings Drivers' Championship: 1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 28, 2 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 14, 3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 14, 4 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 11, 5 Jenson Button (Gbr) Honda 11, 6 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 9, 7 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 7, 8 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 5, 9 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) BMW Sauber 5, 10 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 4, 11 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 3, 12 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 2, 13 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda 2, 14 Scott Speed (USA) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1, 15 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 1