Valencia: Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso thrilled home fans by winning an incident-packed European Grand Prix in Valencia on Sunday to take the overall championship lead and become Formula One’s first repeat winner of the season.
The Spaniard was joined on the podium by two former Ferrari champions – Kimi Raikkonen, second for Lotus, and Michael Schumacher, third for Mercedes.
The victory lifted Alonso, who had started 11th on the grid, to the top of the standings with 111 points, 10 clear of Red Bull’s Australian Mark Webber, after eight of 20 races.
It was the 29th career win for Alonso, who won his two titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006.
Alonso was helped by the mechanical problems that forced pole starter Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull and the Lotus of Romain Grosjean out of the race, while McLaren’s previous championship leader Lewis Hamilton crashed out in the closing laps.
It was still a momentous achievement on a twisty street circuit that had seen three of the past four winners start on pole and nobody win from lower than third place.
“It’s maybe the best victory I have had in terms of emotions,” Alonso told a news conference after sharing the emotion with fans and being mobbed by photographers in the Mediterranean sunshine.
“Here now, with the European championship of football on, and all the fans, I am feeling very proud to be Spanish at the moment,” said Alonso, who had wiped away tears of joy as he stood for the anthems.
He did not wait to reach the podium for the celebration, however, having stopped his car on the track and celebrated with the marshalls and the fans in the stands. The safety car was finally sent to pick him up and rush him for the presentation ceremony.
Hamilton furious
Hamilton was fighting to defend third place when he was knocked off the track by Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado’s Williams, with two laps remaining.
The 2008 champion pounded the steering wheel with his fists in fury, before tossing it out of the cockpit.
Maldonado seemed to blame the Briton, saying, “He tried to put me off of the track and he didn’t give me any room. I jumped over the kerb and couldn’t avoid the accident. I don’t know why he was driving like that. He tried a very aggressive movement on me.”
Both drivers had a meeting with the stewards following the race. If Maldonado was to blame, he may lose the one point he earned from the weekend, after limping across the finish line in 10th place.
Schumacher ecstatic
Seven-time world champion Schumacher made his way through the debris to grab third in his Mercedes, his first podium finish since he was at Ferrari in 2006 and first of a comeback that started in 2010.
Now 43, he was the oldest driver to stand on the Formula One podium since Australian Jack Brabham finished second at Brands Hatch in Britain at the age of 44 in 1970.
“As we crossed the line, I asked my team where we finished,” said the German. “They said third and I couldn’t believe it. I had lost count. It’s a wonderful feeling to be back after such a long time.”
Schumacher started in 12th place, after a poor qualifying session on Saturday, and this third place finish has given him a tremendous boost on the points table, having added 15 in this race alone, to go along with the two others that he had scraped by in what has been a disappointing season for the legend.
There was a rumour after the race that Webber had told the Red Bull garage that Schumacher was using the Drag Reduction System (DRS) while under yellow flags, but Mercedes team boss, Ross Brawn, was confident that the German driver had not. There was still no word from the stewards on this matter at the time of filing this report.
Vettel, world champion in 2010 and 2011, had led from pole and had built up a massive 20-second lead over the squabbling followers. A safety car – brought about by a crash involving Jean-Eric Vergne and Heikki Kovalainen – effectively cut his lead down to nothing.
Given how well Vettel had started the race, he could have been expected to do well at the restart. He was heading towards his third consecutive victory in the port city when his Red Bull lost power in lap 32.
He parked up, tossing a glove at the wall in disgust.
“The engine stalled and switched off and there was nothing we could have done. At the moment it’s not clear what exactly was the problem,” he said after returning to the pits.
Grosjean had been competing for the top spot, and the chance of becoming the eighth different winner in eight races, when the Frenchman also had to retire with an alternator problem when placed second in lap 41 of the 57 lap race.
Kimi unhappy
Raikkonen, who bears the nickname ‘The Iceman’ did not seem all that pleased, even with his second place. Speaking to the press later, he may have delivered the best quote of the season by saying, “I am never happy if I don’t win.”
He then went into more detail as to why that was.
“I had a good start but I was blocked by Maldonado and had to back off, meaning I lost a few places. There was a lot of fighting in the race. We got second place, which is not too bad, but it would have been nice for the team to get both drivers on the podium.”
Still, the flying Finn is now sixth in the championship, and not many would argue that he has not had a terrific season back in Formula 1.
Alonso, who had said after qualifying on Saturday that the ‘podium is out of reach’, defied conventional wisdom to take his second victory after Malaysia in March.
Marussia’s Timo Glock missed the race after failing to recover from a stomach complaint that forced the German to miss qualifying on Saturday. (Agencies)