Alonso turns up the heat

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso rewrote the Formula One form book and turned up the heat in the championship battle by winning his home Spanish Grand Prix for the second time yesterday.

The double world champion’s second victory of the season, and 32nd of his career, made him the first driver in 23 years of racing at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya to win from outside the top three grid positions.

Alonso, who won in Barcelona with Renault in 2006 and also in Valencia last year at the European Grand Prix, took the chequered flag 9.3 seconds ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in a Lotus.

The Spaniard, who started in fifth place with the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row, seized third place through the third corner and had the crowd roaring him on as he led after 13 of the 66 laps.

“It was fantastically emotional and the fans really helped because you feel the support from everyone,” said Alonso after doing his slowing down lap with a Spanish flag handed to him by a marshal.

“We have only had five races and there have been some ups and downs but we know we have the car to fight with the top cars and if we do well we can compete for the championship.”

Raikkonen, in the points for a 22nd successive race and now just two short of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record, denied Ferrari a one-two finish with Brazilian Felipe Massa taking a distant third.

Red Bull’s triple world champion Sebastian Vettel was fourth, 38.2 seconds behind Alonso, and saw his overall lead over Raikkonen cut to four points. After five of the 19 races, the German has 89 points to Raikkonen’s 85 and Alonso’s 72.

Hamilton struggles

Hamilton slipped to fourth with 50 points after spending the afternoon falling through the field as Mercedes again failed to live up to their electrifying qualifying pace.

The 2008 world champion ended up out of the points in 12th and was even heard exclaiming that he had been overtaken by a Williams – driven by last year’s winner Pastor Maldonado – as a measure of how much he was struggling.

“It was way too tough,” he told the BBC. “We have got a lot of work to do. We both went backwards, but I went back a long, long way and I don’t know why.

“We will keep going back to the drawing board and see what we can do.”

Former champions Williams have failed to score a point in five races with a car lacking aerodynamic performance and Venezuelan Maldonado, who finished 14th after a drive-through penalty, had started way back in 17th place.

In a race dictated by the quick-wearing tyres, Alonso pitted four times – the same as Vettel and Massa – while Raikkonen made only three trips to the pitlane.

Rosberg, who had also been on pole at the previous race in Bahrain where he finished ninth, led for the first 10 laps before facing up to the inevitable.

The German, sixth at the finish behind Red Bull’s Mark Webber, was not to lead again as Mexican rookie Esteban Gutierrez took over at the front for two laps in a Sauber amid the pitstops before Alonso asserted himself.

Spanish GP result

Fastest lap: Gutierrez (Sauber),1:26.217, lap 56.
Next race: May 26, Monaco Grand Prix.

Standings

Drivers: 1. Vettel 89; 2. Raikkonen 85; 3. Alonso 72; 4. Hamilton 50; 5. Massa 45; 6. Webber 42; 7. Grosjean 26; 8. Di Resta 26;  9. Rosberg 22; 10. Button 17; 11. Perez 12; 12. Ricciardo 7; 13. Sutil 6; 14. Hulkenberg 5; 15. Vergne 1.

Constructors: 1. RedBull 131; 2. Ferrari 117; 3. Lotus 111; 4. Mercedes 72; 5. Force India 32; 6. McLaren 29; 7. Toro Rosso 8; 8. Sauber 5.