Spain – Race: Fernando Alonso, alone in the world, wins his national Grand Prix

The heat has returned to Catalonia after a cool Friday that saw rain fall. The track is at 34°C ten minutes before the race, which could cause some problems for certain teams struggling with their tires. On the grid, all the drivers are on medium tires except for the two Marussia drivers and Charles Pic, all at the back of the grid.

At the lights out, Sebastian Vettel manages to overtake Lewis Hamilton, quickly followed by Fernando Alonso. The triple world champion immediately puts pressure on Nico Rosberg, while Lewis Hamilton struggles against Kimi Räikkönen. No collisions occurred during this first lap, while Romain Grosjean, Mark Webber, and Jenson Button lost several places.

In the fourth round, the first attempts at intimidation become noticeable, aided by the possibility of DRS activation, but all the drivers seem to be driving economically, likely to preserve the medium tires. Nico Rosberg manages to keep the small train formed by Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Räikkönen, and Massa behind him.

In the sixth lap, Fernando Alonso starts to slightly increase the gap over Lewis Hamilton, who, like Nico Rosberg, is slightly slowing down the two drivers behind him. The two Mercedes drivers are aided by the speed of their cars in the third sector, allowing them to defend against an attack at the end of the main straight. Kimi Räikkönen manages to pass Lewis Hamilton during the following lap, while Mark Webber is called to his pit for his first stop.

In the eighth lap, the flurry of pit stops is well underway, and it’s Felipe Massa who comes in after overtaking a struggling Lewis Hamilton with his tires. The Brazilian returns on hard tires, while Romain Grosjean retires as he enters the pits slowly, his right rear suspension broken. Adrian Sutil remains stuck at his pit spot, apparently with the same issue as in Malaysia. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton also decide to stop on the tenth lap.

On the eleventh lap, the top three rush into the pits and come out in the same order. Fernando Alonso comes out between Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. Kimi Räikkönen returns in seventh place, while Esteban Gutierrez is in first place. Felipe Massa gains places thanks to his pit stop and comes out ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, in fifth position, while Pastor Maldonado is penalized with a drive-through for speeding in the pit lane.

Fernando Alonso, meanwhile, puts pressure on Nico Rosberg as the drivers seem to attack much more than during the first stint. The Ferrari driver overtakes the German thanks to DRS and takes the virtual lead, with only Esteban Gutierrez ahead of him without having stopped. Nico Rosberg cannot resist Sebastian Vettel’s attack and has to concede a few hundred meters further against Felipe Massa. Clearly, Mercedes has not resolved their tire degradation issues.

In the fourteenth lap, Fernando Alonso is leading ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa. Behind the provisional podium, Nico Rosberg tries to fend off Kimi Räikkönen’s E21, the last representative for Lotus in this race. The battle for the podium spots promises to be tight, as the Finn finally passes using the benefit of DRS, while Sebastian Vettel is instructed to monitor his tires, being told the last five laps of his current stint would be the most important. Lewis Hamilton is overtaken by Daniel Ricciardo and falls to tenth place, while it’s learned that a mechanical failure caused Romain Grosjean’s retirement. Sergio Pérez has managed to climb to seventh place and begins to catch up with Mark Webber, who is on the same strategy but with more worn-out tires. Jenson Button has moved up to 14th place after a missed start.

On the eighteenth lap, Fernando Alonso opened up a three-second gap on Sebastian Vettel, while Sergio Pérez loomed in the mirrors of the RB9. The two Williams drivers are in significant trouble, about forty seconds behind the leaders, just seconds ahead of the Caterhams and Max Chilton. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton are struggling, the former over 12 seconds behind in fifth place, while the latter is only in tenth position.

On the twentieth lap, Felipe Massa goes to the pits for a new tire change after just twelve laps on hard tires. The race promises to be challenging for the mechanics who will have to make a large number of stops. Fernando Alonso follows his teammate on the next lap, leaving the lead to Sebastian Vettel. The speed gain from the new tires is real, with Felipe Massa overtaking Sergio Pérez and Daniel Ricciardo in just a few meters. A four-stop strategy is emerging for Ferrari, while the triple world champion and Kimi Räikkönen stay on track. Meanwhile, Giedo van der Garde returns to the pits slowly on three wheels, the last one having come off on the track.

On the twenty-fourth lap, the battle is on at the front. Kimi Räikkönen rockets up to Sebastian Vettel while Fernando Alonso, on fresh tires, is lapping almost 4 seconds faster than these two men. The German is called into the pits after fourteen laps on hard tires, where he switches to a new set. Mark Webber, on the other hand, overtakes Lewis Hamilton, who had regained position during the Australian’s pit stop. The Englishman enters the pits on the next lap, after sixteen laps on hard tires at a slow pace. Kimi Räikkönen, with a strategy different from his rivals, puts on his third set of medium tires, which seem to hold better on the Lotus than the hard tires of the competition.

On the twenty-eighth lap, Fernando Alonso widened the gap on Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel, while Nico Rosberg also made his pit stop. The Mercedes team seemed to have chosen to race at their own pace without really resisting overtaking attempts. Lewis Hamilton even ironically commented to his engineer about his struggle with a Williams car, which has been lagging since the start of the season. And even with this slower pace, his engineer questioned him about the state of his tires, to which the 2008 world champion replied that he couldn’t go any faster. At the front, Kimi Räikkönen gained time on Sebastian Vettel to aim for fourth place.

On the thirty-second lap, Fernando Alonso has a ten-second lead over Felipe Massa, and almost eighteen seconds over Sebastian Vettel, which is close to a pit stop advantage that could prove important. Kimi Räikkönen makes his first attack on Sebastian Vettel in the second DRS zone of the circuit located at the end of the second sector without success, but manages to take advantage on the pit straight, while the German’s engineer asks him to stop fighting. The Lotus takes off after the Finnish driver’s overtaking, showing that the E21 still seems as gentle with its tires as at the start of the season. Sebastian Vettel’s pace is such that Jules Bianchi manages to stay just behind him.

At the thirty-sixth lap, the 2007 world champion is attacking and gains back almost two seconds per lap on Felipe Massa. Nico Hülkenberg is released too early by his team during a pit stop, and his front wing hits Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso, damaging both cars. The Frenchman is definitely not having luck in the pits this year. The race picks up for the leaders, thanks to Kimi Räikkönen gaining time on the two Ferrari drivers. Both Ferrari drivers head to the pits in the same lap to switch to medium tires. Kimi Räikkönen takes the lead of the race, but Fernando Alonso is much faster thanks to his fresh medium tires.

For his team’s mistake, Nico Hülkenberg receives a 10-second stop-and-go penalty in addition to an extra stop to change the front wing. The German’s race is highly compromised. Jean-Eric Vergne heads to the pits for the fourth time on the thirty-ninth lap due to a right rear tire that suddenly delaminated.

On the fortieth lap, Fernando Alonso regained the lead of the race ahead of Kimi Räikkönen, while Sebastian Vettel also makes a pit stop to fit medium tires. The two front-runners are within three seconds of each other, far ahead of Felipe Massa, but the gap between the Ferrari and the Lotus is rapidly increasing, as the E21 is equipped with much more worn tires. There’s a battle for seventh place between Esteban Gutierrez and Jenson Button, which ends in favor of the latter at the end of the pit lane. As for the pole sitter, Nico Rosberg manages to hold onto sixth place, while Lewis Hamilton drops to twelfth. As Ross Brawn had announced, the German team cannot compete for the same positions on Saturday and Sunday.

**On the forty-fourth lap,** the provisional podium is within ten seconds, with Kimi Räikkönen on an offset strategy between two Ferraris that are much faster than him with their newer tires. Engineers are heard asking their driver to start attacking, which should unleash the race. Sebastian Vettel plans to take advantage, but the first Red Bull is already thirty-five seconds behind the leader with twenty-one laps to go. Kimi Räikkönen finally pits on the forty-sixth lap for his third stop and fits hard tires for the first time in the race. He exits in front of Sebastian Vettel, thirty seconds behind Fernando Alonso. The Finn should be able to reach the podium, but will find it challenging to compete for the victory that seems promised to the Spaniard. The podium would currently consist only of drivers who have raced for Ferrari during their careers.

In the fiftieth lap, Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari is about to lap Jenson Button, who is in twelfth position. But he doesn’t get the chance, called into the pits by his engineer and coming out ahead of Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen. The Spaniard emerges on hard tires, as does the Finn who is chasing him within ten seconds. Lewis Hamilton’s engineer gives him advice to save his front-left tire, as Nico Rosberg is doing, losing several tenths in a single corner. A good result is shaping up for Toro Rosso with Daniel Ricciardo in seventh place ahead of the day’s pole-sitter. Felipe Massa stops on the fifty-second lap for his fourth pit stop, followed by Sebastian Vettel. Only two drivers seem to be fighting for victory: Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen, separated by ten seconds. But there are 15 laps remaining, while the first stint of the Ferrari on hard tires lasted only twelve laps, shorter than Kimi Räikkönen’s stints on medium tires. Many drivers pass through the pits, and after the first drivers’ stops, Mark Webber in fifth place is relegated to fifty seconds from the lead. Esteban Gutierrez, in eighth, seems to have found the recipe for maintaining his tires and scoring his first points in Formula 1.

On the fifty-fourth lap, Jean-Eric Vergne has to retire, called back to his pit for extensive damage to his car’s rear wing and floor. The Frenchman had already been hit in the pits by Nico Hülkenberg, so the decision doesn’t really affect his chances of reaching the points. Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, is struggling in a battle with Adrian Sutil for twelfth place, while Nico Rosberg is in sixth position battling with the other Force India of Paul di Resta.

The podium seems to be set, with Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen, and Felipe Massa each having a thirteen-second lead over their respective pursuers. It’s hard to imagine a change as these three drivers are on the same tire specifications, while Felipe Massa is instructed not to worry about Sebastian Vettel, far behind. That was the right message for the Brazilian, who sets the fastest lap, two seconds quicker than Kimi Räikkönen. The 2008 runner-up can attempt to catch his former teammate, being able to afford an extra stop if he wears out his tires. His fastest lap doesn’t last long, surpassed by that of Esteban Gutierrez in his Sauber.

On the sixtieth lap, only ten drivers remain on the same lap while the Mexican from Sauber attacks to aim for the tenth place currently occupied by Daniel Ricciardo. The two McLarens are fighting for eighth place, and Sergio Pérez is asked not to attack too much to preserve his tires. The British team wishes to retain this result which would help them in their fight against Force India. Felipe Massa cannot maintain his frantic pace in pursuit of the Finn, as his Ferrari is slightly unbalanced after having worn his tires a bit too much.

Nico Rosberg is in a tough battle against Paul di Resta for sixth place and is struggling to hold on, but will not easily give up his position to the Scottish driver.

The Williams are also struggling at the end of this race, losing time to the Caterhams.

On the last lap, Fernando Alonso appears in the lead with over ten seconds ahead, unleashing the joy of the Spanish crowd, and crosses the line as the winner. The Spanish driver wins the Spanish Grand Prix for the second time after his victory in 2006 and stops for a few seconds on the track to pick up a Spanish flag that he waves in front of his audience. Kimi Räikkönen takes his third consecutive second place, ahead of Felipe Massa, who earns his first podium of the season.

Behind, there are the two Red Bulls, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, with Nico Rosberg finishing in sixth position after starting from pole position. Paul di Resta achieves another good result with seventh place, ahead of the two McLaren drivers, Jenson Button and Sergio Perez. The last point goes to Daniel Ricciardo, who barely holds off Esteban Gutierrez, the author of a very fine race.

The leader of the world championship remains Sebastian Vettel, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen. Fernando Alonso, on the other hand, takes third place at the expense of Lewis Hamilton, who leaves with a blank score from this Spanish Grand Prix.

In the constructors’ championship, Ferrari moves ahead of Lotus, victim of Romain Grosjean’s retirement.

2013 Spanish Grand Prix Formula 1 Results: