Alonso victorious on home soil in Barcelona

Fernando Alonso was untouchable at the Spanish Grand Prix where tire degradation held paramount importance, with most drivers opting for a four-stop strategy. The Scuderia driver went straight to the front after a superb takeoff from fifth place where he quickly found himself in the top three. The Asturian took the advantage over Sebastian Vettel after the first stop before taking the lead of the race by overtaking Nico Rosberg on the 13th lap. The staggered strategies made reading the race imprecise, but the Asturian's lead allowed him to calmly approach his last stop when he was in the lead of the race. This 32nd victory for the double world champion allows him to come back to 17 points behind leader Sebastian Vettel.

Kimi Räikkönen once again had a superb race, taking second place on the podium for the third time in a row after Shanghai and Bahrain. The Lotus driver opted for a three-stop strategy, preferring medium tires to the hard ones chosen by most drivers. The Finn managed to resist the return of Felipe Massa in the last stint to gain 18 additional points and come back to just four points behind Sebastian Vettel. The Red Bull driver failed in fourth position ahead of his teammate Mark Webber after a rather transparent race from the team. Milton Keynes, even if the Australian worked to move up the ranks after a bad start where he left the top ten.

Nico Rosberg saves a sixth place after starting from pole. THE Mercedes focused on holding on to their tires even if the German had to resist attacks from Paul di Resta at the end of the race. Lewis Hamilton was, however, unable to maintain a place in the top ten and finally finished in 12th place behind Esteban Gutiérrez who failed only three tenths from the top ten. McLaren places his two cars in the points with Jenson Button eighth ahead of his teammate Sergio Pérez. Daniel Ricciardo gets the point for tenth place.

The French had a bad weekend in Barcelona. Romain Grosjean retired at the start of the race following a broken rear suspension. Jean-Eric Vergne was caught in the stands by Nico Hulkenberg. Charles Pic ranks 17th ahead of his compatriot Jules Bianchi. Giedo van der Garde is the last driver to retire after losing a wheel.

Discover the analysis of the Spanish Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version on all platforms, and the next day on newsstands.