Fernando Alonso won the Spanish Grand Prix in front of his adoring public on Sunday – his first victory here as a Ferrari driver, although he won on the same track with Renault in 2006.
Alonso started in fifth place and it was the first time since 1996 that the winner had come from outside the front row. It was his second win of the season, following his victory in China last month, and the 32nd of his career
He seemed to have a premonition of his victory. Before the race he threw his cap into the crowds and was seen high-fiving with Ferrari supporters, who saw their team’s four-stop strategy pay off.
Kimi Raikkonen was second, ahead of Alonso’s team-mate Felipe Massa and then the Red Bull pair of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
That means that Vettel still leads the world championship with 89 points, but his advantage is down to just four points over Raikkonen, with Alonso closing in third place on 72 points and Lewis Hamilton falling back to fourth with 50.
Once again, though, it was a boring race. Formula One these days is all about finding out who is the best slow driver in the world, as conserving tyres has become the most important issue.
It has always been important. But now the teams and the drivers are necessarily obsessive about it because they have to work with the rapidly disappearing rubber they have been given.
It would be much better, surely, to race properly from start to finish, with better tyres and fewer pit stops, even if that does come at the risk of the occasional procession. The start of the race is as exciting as ever. And then you can switch off until the last 15 minutes. You can spend the 90 minutes between the start and the finish watching a football match.
It was a desperate afternoon for Britain’s two former world champions, Hamilton and Jenson Button.
Hamilton struggled to conserve his rubber as well as Rosberg and tumbled down the field. He also suffered from a slow second pit stop and – after a battle with Pastor Maldonado for 14th place – he said: “I’ve just been passed by a Williams. I can’t drive any more slowly.” He finally finished 12th and out of the points and was even lapped.
As for Button, he made a poor start from 14th and was quickly down to 17th, although he rallied in the second half of the race to finish eighth, one ahead of his team-mate Sergio Pérez.
But it was once again a good afternoon for Force India’s Paul di Resta, who finished seventh.
Vettel and Alonso made terrific starts. Vettel split the two Mercedes and Alonso went past Raikkonen going into turn one on the first lap.
There was always the expectation that the Mercedes would fall back from the front but they did so, perhaps, more quickly than they expected and Rosberg finished sixth.
After the start, though, it was time to go and make a cup of tea as the number of bewildering pit stops for new tyres piled up. F1 must get its act together.
Guardian Service
