European GP - Biggest points haul of the season
Valencia, 26 June – Fernando Alonso had said he really wanted to salute his home fans from the podium in Valencia, after failing to do so in Barcelona five weeks ago and today he succeeded. The man from Oviedo finished a fantastic second in the European Grand Prix and, helping to bring home Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s biggest points haul of the season, Felipe Massa came home fifth. Almost inevitably, the win went to pole man Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bull Racing driver taking his sixth victory from eight races. Joining the German and the Spaniard on the podium was third placed Mark Webber.
When the lights went out, Felipe got a fantastic start, shooting past his team-mate and Hamilton to come up behind second placed Webber. But the Brazilian got a bit boxed in by the Australian at the first corner, which allowed Fernando to come back again to take third, so that Vettel led from Webber and the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers, with Hamilton, Rosberg and Button leading the pursuit.
By lap 4, Webber had dropped to 2.1 seconds behind the leader, with Fernando just a second off the Australian. On lap 6, Canada winner Button managed to pass Rosberg to go sixth behind his McLaren team-mate Hamilton. On lap 11, Alonso was just 0.6 behind Webber, as Heidfeld, Barrichello and Kobayashi began the first run of pit stops. The next lap saw Hamilton, Rosberg and Sutil pit. When Webber pitted on lap 13 it temporarily promoted the Ferraris to second and third places. Vettel, Fernando, Button, Schumacher, Di Resta and Buemi all came in on lap 14. Felipe who led the previous lap now came in on lap 15 as Schumacher had to pit again for a new nose, having collided with a Renault. The run of pit stops had not changed the order of the top three, so that Fernando found himself third again behind the Red Bulls.
On lap 18, Fernando put in a fastest race lap, as he closed to 0.8 of Webber and that gap was halved to 0.4 on lap 20, which had the home crowd on its feet and they went wild when one lap later, the Spaniard got past the Australian at the right hander at the end of the long straight, to take second place. The Ferrari man was now 3 seconds behind Vettel. Hamilton pitted for a second time on lap 24, which saw Felipe go back up to fourth, behind Webber, who was closing gradually on Fernando. Lap 28 and Webber pitted the Red Bull for a second time, rejoining fourth behind Felipe, while Fernando made his second stop one lap later. This meant Vettel led Felipe by almost 20 seconds. The German then pitted on lap 30 and emerged from pit lane just ahead of the Brazilian Ferrari driver, while Button and Rosberg also changed tyres. Webber then got past Felipe, as he came in for his second stop next time round but in the second run of pit stops Webber had got the better of Fernando, so once again it was a Red Bull one-two. Felipe’s chances of doing better than fifth took a blow on lap 31, when there was a problem with the left rear wheel nut when he made his second pit stop, which slowed him by a significant four seconds.
With 20 laps remaining of the 57 lap race, Vettel was maintaining a comfortable 2.3s cushion over Webber, while Fernando was very gradually closing up on the Australian, with a gap of 1.3. In fifth place, Felipe had closed the gap to Hamilton to 4.8. Webber made his third and final stop on lap 42, so that Fernando was now second and Hamilton followed down pit lane. On lap 45, Fernando made his final tyre change and came out in heavy traffic which slowed him for a while, but crucially he had got ahead of Webber by running three laps longer on the soft tyres while the Red Bull man was on mediums, and so the Ferrari was lying second to Vettel, who pitted on lap 47, but still led Fernando by 8.6s. From then, the order remained unchanged, although there were plenty of fascinating fights further down the order to keep the bigger than usual Valencia crowd entertained.
Behind the podium trio came Lewis Hamilton, who finished unchallenged as Felipe in fifth had lost ground after his slow pit stop. Jenson Button was sixth in the other McLaren, with Nico Rosberg seventh for Mercedes. Eighth and the only points scorer to get through 57 laps with just two tyre stops was Alguersuari in the Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso. The final points went to ninth placed Adrian Sutil for Force India and Nick Heidfeld for Renault. It’s a busy part of the season and now the F1 circus heads for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in two weeks time, an event and a track which has played a significant part in the Prancing Horse history. But history is no match for aerodynamic downforce and that will be one of the key elements in Round 9 of the championship.
Credit: Ferrari S.p.A. (www.ferrari.com)
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