Alonso wins the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix

2013 Spanish Grand Prix summary

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Fernando Alonso scored his second win of the year in the Spanish Grand Prix.

A rapid start by Ferrari driver moved him past Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton in the opening stint. He made his first pit stop one lap before Sebastian Vettel to jump ahead of the Red Bull driver, then passed Nico Rosberg for the lead shortly afterwards.

Raikkonen got ahead of Vettel as he stretched his tyres out for a three-stop strategy. Massa jumped ahead of the Lotus during the pit stops earlier in the race Raikkonen took the position back when Massa made his final visit to the pits.

Vettel slipped back from the lead group and had to settle for fourth place but retains his lead in the drivers’ championship by four points over Raikkonen. Mark Webber recovered from a poor first lap to take sixth.

Having started from the front row of the grid the Mercedes drivers slipped backwards. Rosberg was quickly passed by Vettel and Raikkonen, and Lewis Hamilton had lost a string of places earlier in the race.

Rosberg successfully held Paul di Resta off for sixth place but Hamilton plummeted out of the points, coming home 12th after seemingly spending most of the race being overtaken.

Jenson Button climbed from 14th to take eighth with team mate Sergio Perez behind him. Daniel Ricciardo resisted Esteban Gutierrez for tenth place and the final point.

2013 Spanish Grand Prix

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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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52 comments on “Alonso wins the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix”

  1. Great drive from Alonso. I believe the result was almost set when he overtook both Kimi and Vettel on Turn2/3. Massively disappointed by Mercedes. I didn’t think they can win but expected more that this. Perhaps they focused too much on the option tyre? the pace on the prime was disaster.

    1. Just wait until Monaco. They will take pole position, then hold up about 15 cars in the world’s longest passenger train until they have to stop for new tyres on lap 10.

      1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
        12th May 2013, 15:34

        @kingshark : i had exactly the same thing on my mind. Frustrating for RBR, SF and Lotus drivers and fans.

    2. Alonso overtook Kimi and Lewis in turns 2/3 of lap 1, not Kimi and Vettel.
      It’s extremely nice and refreshing not to see fingerboy on the podium for once.

      1. Yeah, You’re right. It was Hamilton.

  2. Ferrari swing-o-meter:

    Australia – Good
    Malaysia – Bad
    China – Good
    Bahrain – Bad
    Spain – Good
    Monaco – :-(

    1. Monaco – Very Good :)

    2. Monaco – Very Good :)

    3. Indeed it looks like a pattern building up but F1 is always unpredictable.

    4. *chuckle*
      I hope the trend ends there.

    5. time to break record :D

    6. From this race on the Ferrari swing-o-meter will brake and remain locked in the “good” position. :)

    7. Ferrari have not won in Monaco since 2001!!!

      Although to be fair he may have done in 2011 had it not been for that stupid rule that allowed Vettel to change his tyres.

  3. It really was an interesting start from him. They way he outmaneuvered HAM and RAI was exceptional!

    1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
      12th May 2013, 15:36

      @sankalp88 : it was the move of a champ. Pure finesse.

    2. @sankalp88 honestly I think that was the only piece of racing I witnessed for the entire duration of the race!

  4. Steve McGrath (@)
    12th May 2013, 15:14

    Well done Massa!

  5. Starting to think it’s not the Mercedes car that’s bad – it’s the strategy calls. You’d think that a team with magnificent short-run pace on the softer tyres and woeful long-run pace on hard tyres would do shorter stints and more stops.

    The car isn’t bad – they did great in Australia and Malaysia, as well as a solid job in China but to end up with a 6th and a 12th place (on pace!) after locking out the front row is stupidly awful.

  6. Fantastic start by Alonso and then the move to overtake Lewis and Kimi was brilliant…and a good call from the team to pit earlier than Nico and Vettel… Overall a fantastic win by Alonso… Good drives by Kimi and Massa too… Surprised by the lack of pace from Redbulls… Sad for Hamilton the car seems so terrile in race conditions…

  7. seems like Safety Car has no place in these 5 subdued races

  8. You know what? That was a great victory, but I’m angry.

    I’m angry because my twitter feed was filled with snarky comments about how nobody can push on the Pirelli tyres to the point that they were almost deliberately ignoring that Alonso was doing just that for nearly the entire race until he had secured the lead in the final laps.

    Will Buxton was talking about it on NBCSN all race – while conventional wisdom says “you can’t push on these tyres and win”, Alonso ran a four-stop race, he didn’t back off, he didn’t run to a delta, wasn’t told to just “run his race” aside from the one where he’s consistently banging out fast laps and gapping Raikkonen, Vettel, Massa etc. He actually ran a 90-95% flat-out race – the kind that we feel is long-gone today – and I don’t think he’s getting nearly enough credit for that.

    1. Well I love Will Buxton and his comments. Today’s comments were also inspiring. But given then fact the NBC Sports commentators were giving an artificial thrill about the race showing how excited they were that they Fell out of their Seats ( probably sleeping I Guess ) made me feel that Will was just sticking with the storyline that was adopted by the network. I could be wrong. If you did not watch the race and if u just watch the final talk you might feel that it was the race of the century. I understand their predicament. They need to make F1 popular in America and these kind of stuff are not helping their mission so they have to make up these things.

      1. My point is that Alonso deserves a lot more credit for running the kind of race that’s said to be suicide in this day and age and winning from fifth on the grid – lowest ever for a Barcelona winner – and he did it on a four-stop strategy AND after suffering a slow puncture on his first stint, I think that’s being drowned out in a sea of people complaining about the tyres today.

        I get that the race wasn’t filled with battles for position all race long, but jeez, Hobbs and Matchett had to call the Schumacher years and most of those races weren’t exactly filled with flag-to-flag genuine excitement either.

        1. @rjoconnell I agree . That is what I had said exactly. Please look at my comments below. I never stopped short of giving Alonso the compliments. He did a terrific job. But the Progressive degradation of the quality of the race due to the bad Tires has become so obvious. Unless there is some rain to save the day. the entire year will look like this. Thinking forward imagine Monaco where there is practically very less chances of overtaking these kind of Tires can make up a one Big Sunday afternoon Parade.

          1. I’ve complained about the tyres myself – I think it was at China where I said “this is getting a little silly.” This is just what I noticed, a race being won with a performance that’s closer to a truly flat-out race than just “someone managing their tyres at 70-80% speed trying to get to a delta time”.

            It’s pretty rare that I get fired up after a race about things like this, too.

        2. @rjoConnel
          Did Alonso have a slow puncture on his first stint? I dint know that… Thank God It didnt hurt his race

    2. I think you’re right and I think that is the major issues for Merc. They are so concentrated on trying to go slow and save their tyres, but they haven’t seemed to realise that going slow isn’t saving their tyres. They just need to push, they clearly have a fast car so even if it does mean they need an extra stop, it’s better than driving round 2 seconds off 80% of the ultimate pace.

    3. How do you know he was pushing? Just because he won, it doesn’t mean he was pushing. You don’t know that. I suspect he was going about 85% while others were going 75-80. Screw Pirelli. I can’t say it enough.

      1. That 85% you’re claiming is still closer to 100% than 75-80% is, though.

        1. He wasn’t pushing harder than Massa in the final stint – DC commented on the onboard shot of Massa short shifting and lifting, preserving his tires, then DC said “AND he’s going faster than Alonso a Kimi”.

          Alonso was good today, as same as Kimi in Australia and Vettel in Bahrain. They could all just go faster on their tires.

  9. Great display of crushing superiority by Ferrari and Alonso. Pitiful and embarrassing display by Pirelli and Formula 1 as a whole. I’m slowly starting to like FIA WEC more than F1.

  10. Congratulations to Fernando for driving a great race in front of Home crowd. Good Job…

    I think the +ves stops there.

    I believe it is turning out to be like 2005 season where FIA is using the tires to stop a dominant Ferrari from running away from with the 7th title. Tires are the only parts the teams do not produce and FIA use that to change the race results and track order. I guessing sometime in this season at this rate we might see a repeat of the US GP of 2005.

    It was a disaster day for racing because teams makes cars to run fast and FIA makes Tires to make them slower. at this rate GP2 cars will start running faster than F1 cars soon.

  11. No yellow flags? I didn’t see a single yellow flag the entire race. Can anyone remember any other race where this was the case? Congrats to FA for a dominating home win.

    1. The Whole Race was a Yellow Flag Safety Car Race. Hopefully the marshalls did not feel the necessity for that at any point :)

    2. It’s because nobodies racing so nobody crashes. When was the last time we saw a driver make a mistake because they were pushing?

    3. Motor_mad (@)
      12th May 2013, 15:41

      There was a couple of yellows. One with Grosjean when his suspension broke and i think there was one for Van Der Garde.

    4. There was one, briefly, as Vergne’s tyre self-destructed.
      That’s all I saw.

    5. When they were showing the onboard footage of Massa towards the end of the race supposedly “pushing” in a light car to try and catch Kimi, you could see he was still going painfully slow. I mean I’m no race car driver, but I can tell by the onboard footage when someone is on the limit. And I didn’t see any of that in the entire race. I mean, what was the fastest lap like a 1’26”? What’s the lap record again? About 5 seconds lower, set in a car with much worst aerodynamics and engine. That’s why there were hardly any yellow flags. Everyone join me in boycotting Pirelli! Actually I’m seriously considering boycotting F1 altogether in favor of endurance racing, if it wasn’t for the fact that Alonso may actually have a shot at the title this year and I don’t want to miss that.

  12. I think I expected more of a fight from Vettel. We all knew the Mercedes would fall off a cliff, but I never anticipated it to be as bad as that?!?
    I was looking forward to more of a tussle between Vettel & Alonso, as i expected Rosberg & Hamilton to be “dealt with”, but in the end the entire outcome of the race was dictated by tyres.
    No one can really push anymore, and when they do they’ll pay heavily for it. Look at Rosberg/Hamilton. They never looked anywhere near the ragged edge, and even playing it safe they ended up nowhere.
    Alonso was lucky to make the moves count and find the clear air, but the tyres destroyed yet another promising race.

    1. I expected more of a fight from Vettel

      When they told him on the radio that he can “use” the tyres, he still didn’t put in very fast laps. At one point in the race, even a Marussia could keep up with him for, I don’t know, 5 or 6 laps. So probably there wasn’t much speed in that RB today.

      1. I noticed that too. Think it was Vettel and Raikkonen racing coming up very slowly on the pair of Marussias. After they both eventually passed the Marussias and Raikkonen passed Vettel, Vettel did not pull away very much at all from the Marussias for some time. He was struggling.

  13. diresta did 28 laps on last sting :omg:

  14. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
    12th May 2013, 15:43

    Exceptional race by Alonso. The move on RAI and HAM was that of a pure champion. And pushing the way he did with those tires – pure finesse. ALO > VET. :D

  15. G.Villenueve
    12th May 2013, 16:37

    The Scary thought right now is that everyone seems to forget that KR has been so consistent. He Closed the gab to SV while still keeping him self in front of FA. If Ferrari keep them self worrying so much of SV, they could lose the wdc to lotus.

  16. I dont know what you guys want ? Do you want the snoozefest again that was known as Belgian Gp 2007…. The tires are degrading fast but the good car/driver combination is winning. and its same for everyone. As f ans we should continuie supporting F1 because we love this sport. I dont care if its a 4 stop or 10 stop races, if the drivers have tires at their disposal, let them use them for their own sake. Its the start of the season and teams will get used to these tires asap. Stop criticising and celebrate that you have seen one more race however good or bad that is.

  17. Apparently Alonso was called to see stewards for… receiving the Spanish flag after the race. Word “absurd” was given a completely new meaning.

    1. No way dude, I want to know where you heard this.

  18. I understand the complaint about tyre degradation but it’s the same for everyone. Congrats to ferrari and Fernando including massa for doing a great job. This is what FIA have served them and ferrari managed to make it work.

  19. Vettel has to be happy with where he is in the championship despite having at best the third fastest car out there in the first five races. Red Bull was nowhere at this track last year and both Ferrari and Lotus were very strong.

    I’d like to see driver be able to push a little more, but the nature of the circuit made for a typically boring Barcelona race more than anything.

    1. That car was not 3rd fastest in Bahrain, or Malaysia, clearly!!

      1. Maybe second quickest in Malaysia. Bahrain third fastest. Kimi cracked under the pressure of qualifying and Alonso (who also cracked in qualifying) had the DRS problem, so Vettel was unchallenged out front.

        Definitely the third best car on the grid yet he’s still leading the championship and has driven the best. No mistakes and consistent.

  20. I don’t get the Merc degradation thing. Its the fastest thing over one lap so it has great grip and traction and mechanical grip. So why are the tyres wearing so thin with multiple laps? Is it overheating its tyres? Are the tyres slipping with more fuel onboard, is it a weight distribution thing, the car is good light but heavy, rubbish!

    Its plain weird, I’ve never known anything like it. Cannot understand why Nico was not so badly effected as Lewis either

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