Formula One
Viva España in Valencia
Photo by MIGUEL VIDAL/Reuters
Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso is season’s first two-time winner. Leads the championship with 111 points, an astonishing one hundred points more than his teammate, Felipe Massa.
Fernando Alonso delivered a stunning performance to become season’s first double winner and get on top of the world championship. Sunday’s European Grand Prix, round eight in the streets of Valencia, saw two ex-Ferrari drivers share the podium with the 2005 & ’06 World Champion.
Kimi Raikkonen was second for Lotus and Michael Schumacher came in third, striking his first podium finish since returning to F1 with Silver Arrows, Mercedes.
The trend of different winner each race this year looked set to be broken after Sebastian Vettel grabbed pole position on Saturday, and shared the front row with winner of last GP in Montreal, Lewis Hamilton.
Alonso did not even make it to Q3 and started 11th on the grid, sharing row 6 with Schumacher. Did somebody say ‘misery loves company?’
Photo. HEINO KALIS/Reuters
Sebastian Vettel started from his third consecutive pole in Valencia. Third consecutive race victory was denied in Valencia despite early race domination in his Red Bull Renault-powered machine.
While Vettel was gone after the start, Alonso was coming through on the opening lap. The Spaniard muscled his Ferrari up to eighth at the end of lap one. Hamilton was almost two seconds down in second and busy holding-off Romain Grosjean in his Lotus.
The Franco-Swiss driver passed Hamilton on lap 11 as Vettel went his merry way, extending his lead and looking set for third successive victory in Valencia.
The face and pace of the race would change after Jean-Eric Vergne caused a safety car period following his rubber-to-rubber contact with the Caterham of Finn Heikki Kovalainen on lap 28.
“JEV”, the French Toro Rosso driver, would later receive a double penalty; ten-place grid penalty for the next race at Silverstone, and EU 25k fine.
Hamilton once again had issues during his pit stop and came out in sixth.
The safety car pulled in and race was on lap 34. Alonso delighted the home crowd by immediately demoting Grosjean to third and a loud roar a few corners later signaled the departure of Vettel from the European GP. The German suffered an alternator failure on his Red Bull
Grosjean, chasing new race leader Alonso, kept the hope alive of eight different drivers winning as many races. Hamilton was less than two seconds behind Grosjean.
On lap 41 of 57 Grosjean suffers mechanical gremlins and drops out.
Hamilton, who had already expressed his concern to the team of possible tire issues, resists intense pressure from Raikkonen but gets pushed back to third with only two laps remaining.
Last lap. Enter Pastor Maldonado in the rear view mirror of Hamilton’s McLaren. The feisty and erratic Venezuelan was pushed off the track and returns to the racing line and runs into Hamilton, ending the day for championship leader; Maldonado, sans front wing, soldiered on to collect the final championship point from 10th place finish.
Alonso – The Ace of Oviedo
“A world-class drive”, is how David Coulthard described Alonso’s 29th F1 victory.
The Spaniard now leads the championship with 111 points. Mark Webber, fourth on Sunday, is next on 91 points. Hamilton’s tally is 88 points, two more than defending double world champion Vettel. Nico Rosberg completes the top five in the standings with 75 points.
Red Bull leads the constructors’ championship with 176 points. McLaren is second on 137 points. Lotus third with 126 points. Ferrari is fourth with 122 points, only 11 courtesy of Felipe Massa. Fifth is Mercedes with 92 points.
Alonso said in the post race press conference:
“It’s difficult to express in words what is the feeling now. Winning a home grand prix is something unique – a very special feeling.
“I had the opportunity to do this in Barcelona in 2006 with Renault and I still remember that day perfectly. And now I did the same here in Valencia, with this special team, Ferrari, with all the grandstand full of red color and Spanish flags.
“Here now, with the Euro football championship also, there is a lot of Spanish atmosphere inside all of us. Feeling very proud to be a Spanish sportsman at the moment and winning in Spain this race is probably the best victory I ever felt in terms of emotions.
“Nothing maybe compares to this one.”
— Nasir Hameed
P.S. “Okay, I cancel delivery of Samsung big screen TV.”
