2013 Spanish Grand Prix – Alonso comes out on top in tyre bore

By Simon Wright

Fernando Alonso delighted his home crowd with a flawless display

Spanish superstar Fernando Alonso (pictured) delighted his home crowd on Sunday, as he powered to victory in a Spanish Grand Prix where preserving tyres took severe precedence.

Despite only starting from fifth on the grid, the double world champion was in commanding form on raceday, leading proceedings from just after the first round of pitstops, to take the chequered flag in Barcelona ahead of Kimi Raikkonen by nearly 10 seconds.  It is his second win of the season, and made up for the disappointment of the DRS issues that spoiled his race in Bahrain three weeks earlier.

Felipe Massa made it a double celebration for Ferrari with his first rostrum finish of the season, with points being scored by British drivers Paul di Resta and Jenson Button.  However, it was a miserable afternoon for the Mercedes team, who saw their drivers slip from the front row of the grid down the order into the midfield.

Taking the most severe criticism though was Pirelli.  Four pitstops was the race winning strategy, and over 80 tyre stops were made throughout the race.  Drivers have complained viciously about the 2013 compounds, and now fans are getting confused and the media analysts have stuck the knife into the Italian’s tyre structures.  Under so much pressure, Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembrey has announced changes to the compounds will be made in time for next month’s Canadian Grand Prix, but he is facing tough scrutiny over his role, which has seen tyre management overtake the racing spectacle by some distance in the opening quarter of the 2013 season.

Failures on the cars of di Resta and Vergne have put Pirelli in a risky position

Pirelli should also be concerned by the safety of their tyres.  Following issues for Lewis Hamilton and Massa (twice) in Bahrain, di Resta (car pictured) suffered a scary delamination on the start-finish straight in Friday practice.  In the race itself, Jean-Eric Vergne was victim to a failure, although Hembrey blamed the driver for this incident.  Vergne had an unfortunate clash in the pits with Nico Hulkenberg, but his tyre problem came on a brand new set of tyres from his Toro Rosso.

On Saturday, Mercedes proved they have the fastest car at the moment on a single lap.  Nico Rosberg took his second successive pole position, with Hamilton completing a front row lockout for the Silver Arrows. 

When the lights went out, Rosberg held onto his lead, but Hamilton was under pressure from the off, and was forced to concede second spot to world champion Sebastian Vettel.  Seconds later, he was ambushed by Alonso, who had been squeezed out into turn one, but then produced an outstanding move around the outside of both Raikkonen and the Brit in turn three to take third spot.

Rosberg managed to keep his narrow advantage in the first stint, but Alonso stopped on lap nine and used his fresher rubber to clear current championship leader Vettel.  Later, it was detected he had a slow puncture on his first set of tyres, and unlike the damaged front wing which ended his Malaysian Grand Prix in March, Ferrari played safe and brought the Spaniard in.  This time, they made the right decision.

Shortly after the first stint, Alonso utilised his speed and tyre advantage to drive past Rosberg for the lead, and the German wouldn’t become much of a factor in the outcome.  Very quickly, he meekly surrendered position to Vettel, a flying Massa and Raikkonen.

His team-mate was in even more dire straits.  His pace was poor from the beginning, and both Raikkonen and Massa overtook in the second DRS zone before the first round of pitstops.  A slow first pitstop dropped him further back into the clutches of the midfield pack, and his frustration was clear when he was overtaken on lap 27 by the Williams of Pastor Maldonado.

He yelled on his team radio: “I’ve been overtaken by a Williams.”

When his team asked him to protect the tyres even more, his response was short but accurate, saying: “I can’t go any slower.”

Ultimately, he finished a lapped 12^th.  Rosberg somehow persisted on three stops to sixth, but over a minute behind race winner Alonso.

Massa managed to jump Vettel in the second round of pitstops, and it became clear that like in Australia, the Red Bull cars were using their tyres faster than Ferrari and Lotus.  On lap 33, Raikkonen produced a beautiful pass on Vettel into the first corner to claim third place and his chassis was able to protect its tyres better than the Ferrari.  A sluggish third stint from Massa cost him second place to the Finn, who closed the gap on Vettel at the top of the championship.

No-one could get near Alonso though, who cruised to his third victory in Spain and his second triumph around the Circuit de Catalunya, having first won his home event for Renault back in 2006.

Raikkonen’s fourth podium of the season takes him to within four points of the title lead, while Massa achieved only his third top three result in the last three years.  Red Bull salvaged fourth and fifth from a tough day.  Mark Webber made his customary dreadful start and slumped from seventh on the grid to 14th by the first corner.  An early pitstop on lap seven got him out of traffic and into a lonely fifth spot which he held for most of the rest of the afternoon.

Di Resta did well to finish seventh on a circuit that was never going to suit the strengths of the Force India.  Team-mate Adrian Sutil’s day was ruined by a lengthy first pitstop and left him trailing home in an unlucky 13^th.  Another driver out of luck was Romain Grosjean, whose rear suspension failed at low speed on the ninth lap, ending his afternoon prematurely.

Upgrades made to the McLaren package didn’t see the team make the step forward they had expected.  Jenson Button labelled the team’s performance as ‘embarrassing,’ after finishing a distant eighth, but he was only 17^th after the first circuit.  Team-mate Sergio Perez followed him home, after a better weekend which saw him outqualify his team leader for the first time in 2013.  The final point went to Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso, holding off Esteban Gutierrez, who led a race for the first time in his career and set fastest lap.  Britain’s Max Chilton finished last again, but maintained his 100 per cent reliability record.

The prestigious event of Monte Carlo is the next event on the calendar, and it will be an acid test for Pirelli on the tyres that are dictating the show far too much.  As for the championship, it is already looking like a three-way fight for supremacy between Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus – led by Vettel, Raikkonen and Alonso.

	FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPANA 2013 RESULT
Pos	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Reason	Grid
1	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	66	1hr 39min 16secs	5
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus Renault	66	+9.3secs	4
3	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	66	+26.0secs	9
4	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault	66	+38.2secs	3
5	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault	66	+47.9secs	7
6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes GP	66	+1min 08.0secs	1
7	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes	66	+1min 08.9secs	10
8	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes	66	+1min 19.5secs	14
9	Sergio Perez	McLaren Mercedes	66	+1min 21.7secs	8
10	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	65	1 Lap	11
11	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber Ferrari	65	1 Lap	19
12	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes GP	65	1 Lap	2
13	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes	65	1 Lap	13
14	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault	65	1 Lap	17
15	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber Ferrari	65	1 Lap	15
16	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault	65	1 Lap	16
17	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault	65	1 Lap	22
18	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth	64	2 Laps	20
19	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth	64	2 Laps	21
R	Jean-Eric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari	52	Accident Damage	12
R	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault	21	Lost Wheel	18
. R	Romain Grosjean	Lotus Renault	8	Rear Suspension Failure	6

Drivers’ Championship after 5 rounds: 1. Sebastian Vettel 89, 2. Kimi Raikkonen 85, 3. Fernando Alonso 72, 4. Lewis Hamilton 50, 5. Felipe Massa 45, 6. Mark Webber 42, 7. Romain Grosjean 26, 8. Paul di Resta 26, 9. Nico Rosberg 22, 10. Jenson Button 17, 11. Sergio Perez 12, 12. Daniel Ricciardo 7, 13. Adrian Sutil 6, 14. Nico Hulkenberg 5, 15. Jean-Eric Vergne 1

Constructors’ Championship after 5 rounds: 1. Red Bull Racing 131, 2. Ferrari 117, 3. Lotus 111, 4. Mercedes GP 72, 5. Force India 32, 6. McLaren 29, 7. Scuderia Toro Rosso 8, 8. Sauber 5

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