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 on Sunday.
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 2007 world champion 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.
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.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1h39m16.596s 2. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault + 9.338s 3. Felipe Massa Ferrari + 26.049s 4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 38.273s 5. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault + 47.963s 6. Nico Rosberg Mercedes + 1m08.020s 7. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes + 1m08.988s 8. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes + 1m19.506s 9. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes + 1m21.738s 10. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 11. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap 12. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes + 1 lap 13. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap 14. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault + 1 lap 15. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap 16. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault + 1 lap 17. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault + 1 lap 18. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps 19. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth + 2 laps
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