Fernando Alonso rates Valencia win as one of his best wins – Formula 1 news
Fernando Alonso has described his victory in the European Grand Prix as one of the best of his career in terms of how high the emotions were running.
Alonso did not do well in the qualifiers and finished out of the top ten at 11th place. A win from that position at Valencia's street circuit seemed unrealistic but such has been the theme of the season that freak results are becoming the norm.
Sebastian Vettel came into the race winning the last two races at the Venue with the third pole secured for a hat-trick win. The German started of brilliantly as he managed to induce a 20-second lead over second placed Lewis Hamilton. Vettel was flying away
with the win but a collision of Jean-Eric Vergne and Heikki Kovalainen caused the safety car to come out and the lead was reduced to nothing.
Alonso took advantage and moved behind Hamilton to challenge for the win. Hamilton defended his second place quite well but as his tyres started to wear out it was inevitable for Alonso to overtake him.
Vettel's car had a technical difficulty and had to retire late Hamilton had an altercation with Pastor Maldonado and the Brit had to retire because of it. Maldonado dropped to 10th. This took much of the pressure away from Alonso and he only had Kimi Raikkonen
in the Lotus to worry about as both his drivers' standings rivals were retired out of the race.
“It's difficult to express in words what the feeling is at the moment,” Alonso said. “Winning a home grand prix is something unique, a very special feeling. I had the opportunity in Barcelona 2006 with Renault, and I still remember that day perfectly. Now
did the same thing here in Valencia but now with this special team - Ferrari, with all the grandstands full of red colour, full of the Spanish flags, and here now with the Euro football championships also there's a lot of Spanish atmosphere inside all of us.
I'm feeling very proud to be a Spanish sportsman at the moment and winning this race in Spain is probably the best victory I've ever felt in terms of emotions - nothing ever compares to this one.”
It will be interesting to see how Alonso fares as the season progresses.
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