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| Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso takes victory in the European Grand Prix to become the first driver of the season to win two races |
Alonso passed the Williams and on lap 14, Raikkonen, Kobayashi, Maldonaldo, Hulkenberg,
Ricciardo and De La Rosa all pitted. Fernando came in next time round, while race leader
Vettel and second placed Grojean came in on 16. The Spanish Ferrari driver had managed to
get ahead of Raikkonen and Kobayashi by staying on track for that extra lap and he was now
in a big group of cars, many of whom had not yet changed tyres. At this stage, it was
clear the Spaniard was being more aggressive and assertive than his direct rivals in
getting past the slower cars in the group. He got past Webber in the Red Bull to be eighth
on lap 18, while Felipe was thirteenth behind Maldonaldo. Fernando was flying on Option
tyres and a few moments later he passed Schumacher’s Mercedes to go up to sixth, as
the German and Webber both pitted together.
By lap 20, Fernando was fifth having passed Raikkonen, while Di Resta ahead of him in
fourth had yet to pit. At this point, Felipe had got back up to eighth, which became
seventh shortly after. Lap 21 and Fernando passed the Force India to be fourth, behind
Vettel, who led Grosjean by almost 20 seconds, with Hamilton a further 4s back in
third.
Around lap 26, Hulkenberg started to close on the Brazilian Ferrari driver, with the
gap down to 0.4. As the Safety Car came out because of debris when Vergne and Kovalainen
collided. Grosjean, Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Maldonaldo and Hulkenberg all pitted
immediately on lap 28, one lap after Felipe had come in. The Brazilian therefore found
himself dropping down the order as the others were able to pit without losing time, while
the Safety Car was out. From then on, he clearly had a mountain to climb. The mountain got
even steeper when, on lap 34, he had to pit again after Kobayashi tried an aggressive
passing move, doing more damage to his car. In all the Brazilian had to make four visits
to pit lane today.
Fernando was scything past slower cars and he was third when the Safety Car came in
again, behind Vettel and Grosjean. But the Ferrari man was unstoppable today, and as
racing resumed he dealt with the Lotus to lie second. Then, on lap 34, a bit of luck came
his way, as Vettel had to retire the Red Bull at the side of the track with a technical
problem. You did not have to be watching the race to know what had happened as a cheer
loud enough to blot out the engine noise came up from the partisan Spanish crowd.
From then on, Fernando managed his lead to the flag, but there was still plenty of
action behind him: Grosjean had to retire, which left Hamilton second, but as the McLaren
man’s paced dropped he got caught by Maldonaldo, with the Venezuelan barging past
and pushing the Englishman into the wall and retirement. So with just two laps remaining,
Kimi Raikkonen inherited second place and Michael Schumacher finished third to stand on
the podium for the first time since he returned to the sport in 2010.
Fernando now sits on top of the Drivers’ classification on 111 points, 20 points
clear of his nearest rival, Mark Webber, who brought his Red Bull home in fourth place
today.
