Fernando Alonso takes emotional home Grand Prix victory - A frantic race in Valencia shows a side to the city we haven't seen
Published by Christine
This is F1Minute - Fernando Alonso takes emotional home Grand Prix victory.
We’ve often said the racing in Valencia leaves a lot to be desired, but today’s race was incident filled. Sebastian Vettel turned his pole position into an incredible lead, sweeping more than 20 seconds ahead of those around him, but it was a lot of hard work for nothing when the safety car came out.
Bruno Senna and Kamui Kobayashi had already collided, but this time it was for Heikki Kovalainen and Jean-Éric Vergne, with the Toro Rosso retiring from the race.
As the safety car came in, Vettel pulled to a halt on track as the car died beneath him. Fernando Alonso had managed to pass Romain Grosjean to take the lead, and it would have been his anyway as the Lotus car also ground to a halt with what is suspected to be the same problem as Vettel - something in the Renault engine.
Elsewhere, Daniel Ricciardo and Vitaly Petrov crashed into each other, and Pastor Maldonado swiped into Lewis Hamilton fighting for third, knocking them both out of contention for a podium. Alonso took the home win, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Michael Schumacher - the latter’s first podium since his comeback.
