Fernando Alonso claimed victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, winning in front of a crowd alive with passion and cheer. Kimi Raikkonen maintained his steam on the championship with a strong second place, with Alonso’s team-mate, Felipe Massa, coming home in a fine third place in his 125th race for Ferrari.
With 66 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya ahead, the five lights went out to begin what was to be an exciting race to kick off the European leg of the season. Rosberg got a good start off pole, but his team-mate Hamilton was not as lucky, finding himself lose a place to Vettel in his Red Bull and, just a couple of corners later, Alonso in his Ferrari. Most teams opted for a four-stop strategy with the very first pit-stops taking place on lap 9 with Massa and Sutil coming in. Romain Grosjean suffered a broken rear suspension on his Lotus Renault and came into the pits only to retire. The very next lap saw Alonso and Hamilton come in, with race leader Nico Rosberg, Vettel and Raikkonen coming in on the next. An earlier stop for Fernando Alonso saw his Ferrari trounce the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, gaining track position which was the difference-maker in the race outcome. Winner last year, Pastor Maldonado was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. He would surely not repeat his previous year’s performance. Meanwhile, Esteban Gutierrez was leading the race in his Sauber. On lap 13, overtaking ensued yet again with Alonso taking the lead away from Rosberg, who then lost places to Vettel and then Massa. The Mercedes AMG cars were now heading backwards after starting from the front row; the strongest qualifying positions for the team yet.
Come lap 22, and Alonso headed in for his second stop. Giedo van der Garde had a botched stop which saw his wheel come off and had him three-wheeling his Caterham back to the pits. Second stops ensued and Raikkonen was on a charge, going past Vettel and then leading the race before heading to the pits. With pit stops dominating the positioning, time passed quickly and the charges were starting to happen. Alonso muscled his way to the front at the end of lap 39 and stayed there till his third and final pit stop on lap 50 with Massa holding ground behind him. A couple of laps later though, Massa had to come in and Raikkonen was now in second. Mark Webber, who didn’t spend much time on the broadcast, had worked his way past DiResta and into fifth. With two laps to go, a battle between Rosberg and DiResta was taking shape and would go on till the end of the race.
Alonso took a strong victory in front of his home crowd, with a no-less popular second place for Raikkonen. Massa completed a Ferrari 1-3, bringing in valuable championship points for the team helping Alonso (and Raikkonen) close the gap to Vettel. Vettel leads the driver’s championship with 89 points. Raikkonen is right behind him on 85, with Alonso now in third with 72. In the constructor’s, Infiniti Red Bull lead with 131 points, Ferrari are now second with 117 and Lotus Renault are in third with 111.
