Scuderia Ferrari secured a superb first and third place finish in yesterday’s 2013 Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, with star driver Fernando Alonso taking home the victory and his team-mate Felipe Massa coming in third--this despite a penalized start at ninth on the grid for the Brazilian.
Standing in between the two Ferrari drivers was Lotus’ Kimi Räikkönen, who also had an impressive run himself. But the day belonged to Alonso, the local favorite at the Circuit De Catalunya where the race was held.
Alonso, starting at fifth on the grid, completed 66 laps with a perfectly executed four-stop strategy. From the start, the Spaniard managed to leap to third, while the reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing, moved from third to second, passing the Mercedes AMG of Lewis Hamilton, while the Mercedes AMG of pole sitter Nico Rosberg remained in the lead.
By lap five, this trio was nose to tail but with Räikkönen not far behind and Massa moving quickly up the grid. After a tire change, the order going into lap 13 was Alonso, Vettel, Massa, Rosberg and Räikkönen in fifth.
Lap 38 proved to be the crucial one. Here, the top five were Räikkönen, Alonso, Vettel, Massa and Force India’s Paul di Resta, but during the lap Massa was back in third as Vettel made his third stop, with Alonso having passed Räikkönen to take the lead and eventually win the race.
Then it was Räikkönen, Massa, Vettel and fellow Red Bull driver Mark Webber rounding out the top five. Behind them were Rosberg and di Resta.
The McLaren drivers were dueling again, though in the end Jenson Button managed to edge out his team-mate Sergio Perez, with the duo taking eighth and ninth places respectively. Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo rounded out the top ten. Sadly for Hamilton, his car seemed simply to lack pace. He tumbled down the ranks to finish at 12th.
In the Drivers’ Championship, Sebastian Vettel has managed to maintain his lead with 89 points and is followed closely by Kimi Räikkönen with 85 points. Thanks to his latest win, Fernando Alonso moves up to third with 72 points.
In the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull Racing remains in the lead with 131 points, with Ferrari now moving up to second with 117 points and Lotus dropping to third with 111 points.
Race number six on the 2013 Formula One calendar is the Monaco Grand Prix, which will be taking place in a fortnight.
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