European Grand Prix review: Alonso's best yet

PRACTICE

Practice one - Friday am

In a pretty much drama-free session, Pastor Maldonado began to show Williams was back on form after two poor races in Monaco and Canada, the Venezuelan putting his car on top of the times in opening practice.

The Williams driver set his best time around the halfway point and the benchmark remain unbeaten until the chequered flag, proof that the teams were more focused on trying to unlock the secrets of the tyres in what was always going to be a tough weekend given the heat.

The positions behind Maldonado were swapped often, however, and it was Sebastian Vettel who managed second place in the end thanks to a lap that was less a tenth of a second slower and just a hundredth quicker than his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber.

Jenson Button enjoyed an encouraging start to his weekend following the problems in the last races, the McLaren driver finishing fourth - just a tenth off the pace and ahead of local hero Fernando Alonso in a session which had the top 13 drivers separated by less than a second.

Practice two - Friday pm

A theme that would continue through the weekend was the upturn in pace Red Bull's upgraded RB8 produced and the first real signs of it were demonstrated in practice two - when Vettel went fastest of all, 0.131s quicker than Nico Hulkenberg.

Yes you read that right, Hulkenberg and Force India team-mate Paul di Resta were both at the sharp end for much of the weekend as the Silverstone-based team found its own changes to the VJM05 were blending well to Pirelli's soft option tyres. Kamui Kobyashi was third quickest for Sauber.

This session was also notable for the first major incident of the weekend as Pedro de la Rosa appeared to go straight on into the tyres at Turn 13. The HRT driver admitted afterwards that it was his error that caused the crash as the F112 clattered over the kerbs and head on in to the retainers, significantly damaging the left-front of the car.

Williams was once again in the pound seats too, with Maldonado already having the set the pace in session one, this time around Bruno Senna was fifth fastest behind Michael Schumacher's Mercedes.

Practice three - Saturday am

Button set the pace, although Vettel's form was ominous as he set the fastest times in sectors one and two on his qualifying simulation before heading into the pits, leaving him down in 13th.

Lotus pairing Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen also showed strongly, ending up second and third fastest. Both opted to run on soft tyres earlier than the bulk of the field, with the Franco-Swiss driver posting his time shortly after the halfway mark and Raikkonen capitalising on a quiet track shortly before most bolted on their option rubber in the final 10 minutes.

Force India pairing Hulkenberg and di Resta carried over their strong Friday form by rounding out the top five ahead of Sauber driver Sergio Perez.

Vettel ended the session down in 13th, although this was courtesy of his time posted on medium rubber. That lap was the fastest of the session on the slower rubber, suggestion that he would be a contender sharp end on both single-lap and longer run pace.

His Red Bull team-mate Webber endured a disastrous session. The Australian managed only four laps before having to park his RB8 with brake problems. Alonso also had a troubled morning, locking up and taking to the escape road at Turn 12 on his soft-tyre run and ending up eight tenths off the pace.

QUALIFYING

1st Sebastian Vettel

"I had one shot in the end, which turned out to be a very good lap and I was happy. Q1 and Q2 were not to our liking, we were struggling to find the balance that we did have. But it was a good recovery. In the end, it was a surprising gap."

2nd Lewis Hamilton

"I expected to be a lot further back. We struggled over the weekend with set-up and going from practice to qualifying we had to make some guesses. I'm really surprised. Whilst the car still felt pretty good, the gap is still quite good so it will be a tough race."

3rd Pastor Maldonado

"We have been working so hard. The car was quite quick from yesterday but we were struggling a bit with the option tyres. I didn't have the same feeling as with the prime tyres. But we have been working so hard to understand the car. We did a good job."

4th Romain Grosjean

"Today we got pretty much the most out of the car that we could have. P4 is a good position for the start of the race but of course you always want more and to do better. Sebastian did an unbelievable lap and today we could not have matched it."

5th Kimi Raikkonen

"It was very close in qualifying, especially in Q2, so it's good to be fifth on the grid. If we could have improved just a little bit on my last lap then we could have gained a couple of places, but it is an improvement on last time out so I'm very happy with that."

6th Nico Rosberg

"I wasn't happy with the outcome. We were quick though but when I was just about to start my final lap, Lewis was slowing down in the final corner. I had to start my quick lap behind him which made it impossible to improve. There is an agreement in place to stop things like this happening."

7th Kamui Kobayashi

"My lap was okay and I think perhaps that the absolute maximum I could have squeezed out was another tenth, but no more. It definitely was worth giving everything in Q3 as we managed to put three cars behind us."

8th Nico Hulkenberg

"It's a great result for the team to get both cars in Q3, but maybe we were hoping for a little bit more than P8 and P10. I don't think the increase in temperatures helped us because the car felt more difficult to drive today and a bit nervous at times."

9th Jenson Button

"The car was very quick. All the way through qualifying the pace was very good, even in Q3 with an old set of tyres I was only two tenths off Nico who was on new tyres. Then we put a new set on at the end and I had no front-end grip. I don't know why that is."

10th Paul di Resta

"We expected a bit more and certainly showed very strongly during qualifying. We were third quickest in Q2 and all I had to do was repeat the lap and it would probably have been a top five start. But I made a mistake and locked a wheel and screwed up the last sector."

11th Fernando Alonso

"When you don't qualify for Q3, it's obviously very sad and there's no point hiding the fact. It's easy to say now that with two runs on softs in Q2 we would have made the cut, but maybe now we would be here lamenting the fact that we did not have two for Q3."

12th Michael Schumacher

"I'm not particularly happy about not making it through Q2 but that was clearly down to me - I didn't get my lap together. On my first run, I was too aggressive in Turn 12 on my first timed lap, then had to abort the second lap because the tyres were no longer in good enough condition to improve."

13th Felipe Massa

"It's really frustrating ending up outside Q3 by less than a tenth. It was a very close qualifying, with so many drivers very near to one another in performance terms: in Q2, we were three tenths off the fastest time and we were eliminated. A shame because the feeling from the car was very good."

14th Bruno Senna

"I'm not too happy with our qualifying result today as I wasn't able to put all my best sectors together which cost me a lot of positions. However, the car feels good for tomorrow so hopefully we can have a stronger race."

15th Sergio Perez

"I am disappointed with the qualifying, but I have every reason to be confident as we made some changes to the car for the race which didn't help us this afternoon. I believe they will pay off on the longer runs. The car's balance wasn't good in qualifying and it felt a bit unpredictable."

16th Heikki Kovalainen

"Today's performance was the result of a great effort by the whole team. As the track kept evolving my car just felt better and better and I really got the most out of it on that final lap on the softs. We need to translate today's result into more good news tomorrow."

17th Daniel Ricciardo

"It was a fairly tough afternoon. After being off the pace yesterday, we made some pretty big changes to the car overnight. We managed to close the gap a little but, but not enough to be in contention to fight with our usual competitors. We decided not to do the second run in Q2."

18th Jean-Eric Vergne

"We are suffered from a general lack of performance. I am struggling to put together a good lap, especially as I could not get a good feeling from the brakes, which meant that sometimes I was locking all four wheels. All these factors affected my qualifying."

19th Mark Webber

"We had no DRS. That's worth 1.3 seconds. The car's put up a big fight today. We've only managed four laps all day and three of those were in qualifying. We had on lap on primes at the start and then went to the pits because the gearbox hydraulics were playing up."

20th Vitaly Petrov

"I had a good first run on the medium tyres and then was going well on the softs but made a small mistake which cost me a couple of tenths. Around this track, you only need to lose a small amount of time to drop a few places back."

21st Pedro de la Rosa

"Qualifying was very good. After yesterday's incident it took me no time to be quick again, so I applaud my team for their effort last night to fix the car. I'm also happy to have finished ahead of our direct rivals as I wasn't expecting it."

22nd Narain Karthikeyan

"We made some specific set-up changes for qualifying which definitely helped as we completed our best qualifying session of the season so far. We're ahead of the Marussias, which is very important, and I'm clocking similar times to Pedro, so I'm very happy with the result."

23rd Charles Pic

"I can't be happy with my position but I feel that I did everything I could with the car we had today. We have not approached the weekend in the usual way but in these situations you can only make the best of things and that is what we have done today."

24th Timo Glock

Did not participate in qualifying because of a stomach bug. Has been granted dispensation to start thanks to his practice pace provided he passes medical assessment. Decision will be made on Sunday morning as to whether he will race.

Starting grid

Pos  Driver              Team/Car
 1.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault
 2.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes
 3.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault
 4.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault
 6.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes
 7.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari
 8.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes
 9.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes
10.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes
11.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari
12.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes
13.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari
14.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault
15.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari
16.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault
17.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari
18.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari
19.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault
20.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault
21.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth
22.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth
23.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth
24.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth

RACE

The European Grand Prix was a race of might-have-beens.

Sebastian Vettel would argue that it might have been his third consecutive Valencia victory having led from pole position until his retirement with an alternator failure. As for Romain Grosjean, he might have been the eighth winner of the season had his Lotus not expired with the same problem. Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, too, could have done better than third had he not had to back out of the throttle after a flying start to avoid Pastor Maldonado. As for Lewis Hamilton, he once again could only curse the front jack for time lost in his second pitstop that would have changed the course of his race, although he later resolutely denied that a victory was ever on the cards.

But Fernando Alonso isn't a man who deals in such might-have-beens. Achievement is his currency and a typically relentless drive from 11th on the grid earned him only his second Formula 1 victory on home soil, six years after winning the Spanish Grand Prix. After qualifying, he had scoffed at suggestions that even a podium was possible, but that certainly didn't translate into giving up come Sunday afternoon.

At the start, the Spaniard immediately started to make up for his disappointing qualifying. A fast launch allowed him to jump Jenson Button before he'd cleared the grid markings and after a frenetic first lap he came round in eighth having got ahead of both Nico Rosberg and Paul di Resta. From then on, it was all about a combination of tyre management and making the decisive passes when it mattered, his first victim being the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg on lap 12.

Crucially, Alonso's tyres held up long enough in the first stint for him to pit a lap after, and re-emerge ahead of, Kimi Raikkonen, Kamui Kobyashi and Pastor Maldonado. Alonso rapidly dispatched a gaggle of non-stoppers and by lap 22 he was up to fourth with only Vettel, Grosjean and Hamilton ahead of him.

When the safety car was deployed after Jean-Eric Vergne sideswiped Heikki Kovalainen under braking for Turn 12, he joined Grosjean and Hamilton in diving into the pits and had McLaren's swivel jack to thank for coming back out in third place. Hamilton's stop was slow, allowing Alonso to pass his old team-mate in the pitlane. From 11th, it was a case of eight down, two to go and it was on lap 34 that the race really came to him.

At the restart, good fortune and Alonso's brilliance coincided to earn him the lead. With Grosjean focused on Vettel's rear wing, Alonso took a wide entry into the final hairpin, giving him a run on the Lotus driver on the main straight. At Turn 2, he completed a bold move around the outside to take second. Later that lap, Vettel's alternator problem, which had stated to manifest itself under the safety car, caught up with him and he coasted to a halt. The Ferrari driver had the lead and it was now a question of whether Grosjean could fight back. Fortunately for Alonso, the question of whether Lotus was right in thinking that its tyre management would give the Franco-Swiss a decisive edge will never be answered as he too lost drive on lap 41 with his own alternator failure.

From there, it was a simple question of keeping the tyres alive and maintaining the gap for Alonso. He did that to perfection to take an emotional victory.

"Especially yesterday after the qualifying, you never think that you can get a good result or that you can fight for the podium," said Alonso. "When you find yourself third in the race after the safety car, I said: 'hopefully there is the chequered flag now and I enjoy this podium celebration.' Two laps later I overtook Grosjean on the restart and you think again 'hopefully the race finishes now'. Then Vettel stopped and it was a very long race until the end and, yeah, I enjoyed so much this moment. It's difficult to put in words what I'm feeling."

What went on behind him in the closing stages is difficult to put into words as well. Grosjean's problem handed second place to Hamilton, who had Raikkonen breathing down his neck. The Finn's race had been far from simple and had Maldonado not squeezed him at the Turn 1 kink on the first lap, it's likely that it would have been him, rather than Grosjean, heading up the Lotus challenge. As it was, there was little he could do about Hamilton until the McLaren man's tyres started to go off badly three laps from home. Raikkonen cut under the McLaren driver at the exit of Turn 18, but didn't have the speed to chase after Alonso and had to be satisfied with his third podium of the season.

Hamilton then came under attack from Maldonado. The Williams driver made his move at the end of the DRS zone on lap 56 and attempted to hang on around the outside of Turn 12. After being edged onto the run-off, he clashed with Hamilton as he rejoined the track, putting the McLaren man into the wall and ripping off his own front wing. He was fortunate to salvage a point for 10th after limping home following the incident. Or so he though, for he was subsequently hit with a 20-second penalty in lieu of a drive-through penalty for the incident, handing team-mate Bruno Senna the place.

Hamilton's exit handed Michael Schumacher the first podium finish of what he describes as his second F1 career. Schumacher endured tough times earlier in the race, running all the way to lap 19 before making his first pitstop. This meant that he was one of the later cars to stop for a second time and he was able to use his rubber advantage to attack in the closing stages. He rejoined 11th after his stop on lap 41, but quickly started to make up ground with Red Bull driver Mark Webber, who started 19th and adopted a similar strategy, in tow.

In quick succession, the pair passed Vitaly Petrov, Button, Sergio Perez, Paul di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg (plus Nico Rosberg, who made a late pitstop), which meant that they moved up to third and fourth when Hamilton hit the wall.

Hulkenberg had a relatively orthodox race to fifth place despite losing KERS, although he would have lost the position had the race run another lap. Rosberg, who emerged in 12th after his stop on lap 46, made up seven places in the final 10 laps to bag sixth after passing both di Resta and Maldonado on the final lap. Di Resta's drive was particularly impressive, as he pulled off a seemingly impossible one-stop strategy, although without the safety car's intervention he reckoned he would have finished in the top five.

Button was eighth after an uninspired race during which he was not able to make significant progress in the midfield, although he did pass both Perez and Maldonado during the chaotic final lap. Perez, who had gambled on an early stop, ran out of tyre performance late on after running as high as seventh in the closing stages.

There were plenty of drivers who had just cause to argue that they might have emerged with points. Felipe Massa looked in the hunt for a point or two until he was clattered by Kamui Kobayashi. The Sauber driver had run as high as fourth during the first stint, but his ill-judged move up the inside of Massa left both cars hobbled and put him out of the race.

Caterham driver Vitaly Petrov briefly ran as high as 10th, but was forced to make an extra pitstop after losing his front wing after being turned in on by Daniel Ricciardo. Also in the wars was Senna, who salvaged 11th in the race after spinning when he clashed with Kobayashi, an incident that earned the Williams man a drive-through penalty.

But on this day when so many lamented the lost chances, it was F1's arch opportunist, Alonso, who prevailed. In doing so, he moved to the head of the world championship.

Ominous...

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

RACE RESULTS

The European Grand Prix
Valencia Street Circuit, Europe;
57 laps; 308.883km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h44:16.449
 2.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +     6.421
 3.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +    12.639
 4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    13.628
 5.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    19.993
 6.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    21.176
 7.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +    22.866
 8.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    24.653
 9.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +    27.777
10.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +    35.961
11.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +    37.041
12.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +    54.653 *
13.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +  1:15.871
14.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +  1:34.654
15.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +  1:36.551
16.  Massa         Ferrari                    +     1 lap
17.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +     1 lap
18.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +     1 lap
19.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    2 laps

* 20 second time penalty for causing a collision

Fastest lap: Rosberg, 1:42.163

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Grosjean      Lotus-Renault                41
Vettel        Red Bull-Renault             34
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               34
Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari           27
Glock         Marussia-Cosworth            1


World Championship standings, round 8:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso       111        1.  Red Bull-Renault          176
 2.  Webber        91        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          137
 3.  Hamilton      88        3.  Lotus-Renault             126
 4.  Vettel        85        4.  Ferrari                   122
 5.  Rosberg       75        5.  Mercedes                   92
 6.  Raikkonen     73        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             60
 7.  Grosjean      53        7.  Williams-Renault           45
 8.  Button        49        8.  Force India-Mercedes       44
 9.  Perez         39        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6
10.  Maldonado     29       
11.  Di Resta      27       
12.  Kobayashi     21       
13.  Hulkenberg    17       
14.  Schumacher    17       
15.  Senna         16       
16.  Massa         11       
17.  Vergne         4       
18.  Ricciardo      2       
       
All timing unofficial

Red Bull

Red Bull brought a massive upgrade to Valencia which prompted one team member to describe it as a 'D-spec' RB8. Vettel's progress with the car was serene through practice and qualifying and he duly took his 33rd career pole position, setting himself up as clear favourite for the race.

Team-mate Webber had a far less simple path to the race following a succession of brake and gearbox issues that cost him nearly all his running in third practice. Things hardly improved in qualifying as his DRS failed to operate rendering him 19th on the grid - his worst start to a grand prix since the 2009 Japanese GP.

Vettel appeared to have the race under control, even after a mid-race safety car deleted his advantage, but then he pulled off the track on lap 35 with a suspected broken alternator. The safety car assisted Webber's charge through the field and a late switch to soft option tyres allowed him to pass cars struggling on older primes - and he also benefited from Maldonado and Hamilton's shunt - to finish a fighting fourth.

McLaren

Hamilton came off the back of his Canadian GP victory a little disappointed to discover that Red Bull had apparently jumped ahead in the development race in Valencia, so was pleasantly surprised to end up second on the grid. Button had hoped to make a step forward after his recent slump and there were flashes of the old speed in practice, though brake-locking issues pinned him to eighth on the grid.

Hamilton could have won the race potentially given Vettel's failure, having trailed the world champion from a distance in the opening sequences of the race. But he lost 14s in his second pitstop, taken just as the safety car came out, when McLaren fumbled one of the front wheels. This dropped him behind Alonso and Grosjean. He gave chase, but his primes gave up two laps before the end and he was taken out by Maldonado's Williams as the Venezuelan tried to pass for a spot on the podium.

Button benefited from Hamilton's retirement and various other chaotic misadventures up and down the field to finish eighth. But his start was poor and he was never in the fight for the podium.

Ferrari

Alonso qualified a despondent 11th for his second home grand prix of the year and declared to Spanish television that there was absolutely no chance whatsoever of him standing on the podium on Sunday. The fact that he so emphatically proved himself wrong was testament to his own utter brilliance.

A charging first lap meant that Alonso made three places instantly, then a combination of further passes and long-stopping on his first set of tyres but the Spaniard into fourth when the first stints all shook out. Hamilton's bad pitstop gave Alonso third prior to the safety car and then he went around the outside of Grosjean for second in a ballsy move at Turn 1 after the safety car peeled into the pits. That effectively became the lead when Vettel retired and from thereon in it was a question of soaking up pressure from Grosjean and then Hamilton (both of whom retired). No one does that better, and in the end it all culminated in producing perhaps his greatest victory.

Massa started 13th and trailed Alonso initially, though the two Ferraris were split by di Resta's Force India. But he dropped back in the first pitstops and then was skewered by Kobayashi's out of control Sauber. Massa continued but finished a distant 16th.

Mercedes

Finally Schumacher took a first podium finish since returning to the sport with Mercedes in 2010. Despite early predictions that he might win in Valencia, it all seemed unlikely when he started 12th having failed to capitalise on Merc's double DRS system in qualifying.

Switching to a two-stop strategy was key for Schumacher though as he made up no less than 12 places in his second stint and through the safety car period - which fell perfectly for him. His final stop, with 16 laps to go, on to the soft tyres gave him the perfect weapons to attack with as others hit degradation hell and some hit the barriers. Such was the chaotic nature of the midfield battle that it wasn't until he crossed the line that Schumacher was informed that he had taken his 155th career podium.

Rosberg finished sixth after a stirring fightback from a poor start. A sequence of late-race fastest laps pulled him back in to contention after he dropped as low as 13th following his last stop on to softs. Another to benefit from the Maldando/Hamilton barrier interface.

Lotus

Many people's tip for the victory before the weekend began Grosjean qualified a confident fourth, happy in the knowledge that E20 would likely be even faster in the race. And despite Vettel disappearing into the distance in the lead early on, Grosjean had started to lap faster prior to the safety car.

Grosjean was then briefly in the pound seats but lost out to Alonso on the restart. He shadowed the Ferrari for seven laps and then his alternator failed.

Raikkonen was annoyed not to have beaten Alonso to the win and felt he should have done, but lost quite a bit of time behind the wilting Hamilton late in the race and when finally he got past it was too late to do anything about Alonso.

Force India

Force India came away from Valencia with 14 points which was a good haul from a strong weekend.

Both cars made it into Q3, with Hulkenberg starting eighth and di Resta 10th. Both made up a place at the beginning, but while the German followed a conventional two-stop strategy, di Resta ran as high as second as he went for a one-stopper. His tyres dropped off not long after that and he finally pitted on lap 23 for primes. The Scot's cause was then helped by the safety car but even with that his tyres were falling away again at the end as he hung on for seventh.

Hulkenberg's strategy bore out to be the better one as he raced to a strong fifth ahead of Rosberg.

Sauber

Sauber ended up on the wrong end of the Valencia chaos. Kobayashi impressed in qualifying as he grabbed seventh on the grid, then ran fourth for a spell. But a slow first pitstop was followed by clashes with Senna and Massa, the second resulting in race-ending damage.

Perez struggled in qualifying and was only 15th. An early switch from medium to soft tyres didn't pay off, leaving him trying to push his final set of softs too far, and resulting in a slide back to ninth at the flag.

Toro Rosso

Off the pace again in qualifying, Ricciardo and Vergne found themselves behind Kovalainen's Caterham in 17th and 18th on the grid. Vergne then collided with the Finn early in the race, doing too much damage to continue and also earning a damning fine and 10-place grid penalty for Silverstone.

Ricciardo ran as high as fourth by virtue of eschewing a pitstop under the safety car. After his late second stop he might have been able to charge back into the points, but a tangle with Petrov - which Ricciardo somehow emerged unscathed from despite a heavy landing - cost him time and he could only finish 12th, which became 11th after Maldonado's penalty.

Williams

Maldonado came very close to another podium for Williams, and looked a likely winner when he qualified third. The Saturday result didn't quite translate into race pace, as Maldonado lost out a little on the first lap and in the early running - looking set for a lower top six finish at first.

When Hamilton's tyres wilted, though, Maldonado was able to attack for third, only to collide with and take out the McLaren. Maldonado dragged his car home 10th but was demoted to 12th by a penalty. That allowed Senna into the points in 10th at the end of a very underwhelming weekend in which he qualified only 14th, collided with Kobayashi while trying to fend off cars on fresher tyres, got a penalty for his actions, then stretched it out to the end on a one-stop strategy.

Caterham

Still no points, but one of Caterham's most promising weekends yet. Kovalainen outpaced the Toro Rossos on merit in qualifying and started 16th, though a loss of KERS hampered his early pace and he sustained a puncture in a collision with Vergne. Nevertheless, he recovered to 14th.

Petrov was slower on Saturday and started 20th, before working forward steadily in the race as others hit trouble or pitted. That brought him up to 10th for a spell, but he was edged back to 12th and then collided with Ricciardo, in an incident that led to a front wing change and a slump to 13th.

HRT

De la Rosa started the home team's weekend with a big crash in Friday practice, but rebounded well to qualify 21st, with Karthikeyan also beating sole Marussia driver Pic and lining up 22nd.

Their race pace was less encouraging, and amid heavy tyre wear and a pitlane speeding penalty for Karthikeyan, they trundled home 17th and 18th, de la Rosa ahead.

Marussia

With Glock sidelined by illness from Saturday lunchtime onwards, Pic had to uphold Marussia alone. That didn't go too well in qualifying, where he was slowest and beaten by the HRTs, but in the race he not only managed to get ahead of the Spanish cars (included a wheel-banging move on Karthikeyan) but even beat Massa's delayed Ferrari as he finished 15th.

RACE DATA

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)