2013 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix – Fernando Alonso Shows Barcelona Brilliance
The Front Runners After a disaster in Bahrain, Ferrari delivered in style and converted their promising practice pace into victory as Alonso blended speed and strategy to take a commanding victory. Using early aggression to clear traffic, most notably in turn three on the first lap past Raikkonen and Hamilton round the outside, Alonso gave himself clear space to stretch his lead and build pit stop windows, and it all worked out beautifully for him. Felipe Massa was disappointed to start ninth after his qualifying penalty, but showed Ferrari have really taken a step forward for the European season as he carved through the field on the first lap and then drove strongly to his first podium of the year, seeing off Red Bull in the process. Raikkonen took another calm, controlled second place, his third of the season, for another 18 points and managed the tyres, particularly the options, excellently to stay out of reach of Felipe Massa in the closing stages. Grosjeans weekend went from bad to worse, as after a mistake in qualifying hampered his grid position, on lap nine his rear suspension collapsed and ended his weekend prematurely. Red Bull were beaten fairly by Ferrari and Lotus this weekend, but Vettel still took a comfortable fourth position. After a strong start, Vettel started to struggle for pace with the tyres as they attempted a three-stop race, and in the closing stages was unable to keep up with the podium positions. Mark Webber made an awful start, and by turn one was lost in the midfield, however he turned it around to drive back through the pack and take fifth place and solid points behind his teammate. Rosberg, after starting in pole position, found himself going backwards quickly after the first stops as it became clear Mercedes have not fixed their tyre degradation issues, and if anything they looked worse than ever. Rosberg drove well on a three-stop to hold off Di Resta and take sixth, but will know theres a lot of work to do. Paul di Resta couldnt match the heroics of Bahrain, but was pleased to take seventh and might have had sixth with a little more luck against a feisty Rosberg ahead, but things look promising for the races ahead. McLaren surprised us by having better race pace than we thought they might, with Jenson Button taking eighth and Sergio Perez ninth. Button had a woeful start like Webber, but worked his way back through the pack on a three-stop strategy, whereas Perez had more pace but needed four stops. In the closing stages it looked as though Perez might pass and be able to threaten as high as sixth place, but even with two DRS zones it didnt happen.