Tributes for record-breaker Alonso

Alonso's 'youngest ever' record removes Bruce McLaren from the record books if you are a purist and Troy Ruttman if you are not. McLaren won the 1959 US Grand Prix at Sebring at the age of 22 years and 104 days, while Ruttman won the 1952 Indy 500 when it was part of the world championship but barely any of the European drivers ever participated. He was 22 years and 80 days.

The first to embrace Alonso as he climbed from the first Renault chassis to win a race since Alain Prost's in Austria 20 years ago, were Flavio Briatore and Alonso's father Luis, for whom it was an especially proud day.

The mining engineer and former karter was taking it all in his stride, however. "He is a fine son and this won't change anything," he said. "This is a great moment and the repercussions in Spain will be bigger than anything, but to be honest I think it was a bigger achievement when he won the karting world championship.

"I'm delighted but it wasn't an agonising race to watch because he wasn't under pressure. When I saw him open out such a gap in the opening stint I knew that barring a mechanical problem he was going to win it. But you never relax because there can be any number of problems. You are never sure it is going to happen but it was not a truly nerve-wracking race."

Alonso's manager, Adrian Campos said: "He has no limits. He is the perfect machine for this job. He has no flaws and everything about his character works in his favour for being a racing driver."