F1 News
Date:
12/May/2013
Fernando Alonso and Ferrari got their 2013 F1 title campaign
firmly back on track with a resounding victory in front of the Spaniard’s home
fans at the Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday.
Alonso’s third home triumph was also his 32nd as
an F1 driver, moving him ahead of Nigel Mansell.
Nine more wins would put Alonso equal with the late great
Ayrton Senna, but Alonso now has eyes only on adding to the titles he won for
Renault back in 2005 and 2006.
“I’ll just be happy if I finish second in all the races, but
I win more championships,” he declared.
A mighty pass around the outside of both Kimi Raikkonen and
Lewis Hamilton saw Alonso move from fifth to third on the opening lap of the
grand prix - setting the scene for what would become a near ten-second victory.
“To win the race we needed to pass people at the start,”
said Alonso of the brave overtake. “The start was very good but we didn’t have
the space to move so I waited for a better opportunity. It came straight after
turn one.
“I saw Kimi and Lewis running a little bit wide in turn one
so I changed trajectory and I had a clean exit in turn two. I passed Kimi and I
said ‘why not also Hamilton?’ I had a little bit of KERS that I saved from the
start for turn three, so I used that to pass Hamilton.”
Alonso then moved to the head of the field shortly after the
first of his four pit stops - Pirelli
admitted they misjudged tyre wear and will make changes to stay within their
target of two or three stops per race - and wasn’t troubled again.
The 31-year-old, who still laments losing the 2010
Championship at the final round, confirmed that this year should represent his
best chance of a Ferrari title.
“We should have won the Championship, I believe, in 2010. We
arrived in Abu Dhabi ahead of Sebastian. We lost there but nothing we can
change now. Last year maybe we didn’t deserve it because we were one second off
the pace, but even with that we manage to fight until Brazil.
“In the four years with Ferrari maybe it’s true that this is
the one we feel more confident with, but we are not happy still with the
performance of the car and we want to have a good and aggressive developing
programme for the next races.”
Alonso is the only driver in the Championship top five to
have suffered a non-score this year - after crashing with a broken wing in
Malaysia.
But his second win of the season means he is now up to third
in the standings, 17 points from Red Bull’s reigning Champion and 2013 title
leader Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel finished fourth in Spain and is now just four points
clear of Raikkonen. The Lotus driver again needed less pit stops than most,
changing tyres three times on his way to second place behind Alonso.
Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton dropped
from first and second on the grid to sixth and twelfth in the race.
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