Valencia, 24 June

A supreme Fernando Alonso won the European Grand Prix here today, with a climb up the order from eleventh on the grid and that will surely be remembered as one of the greatest Formula 1 victories. The Scuderia Ferrari driver thus takes back the lead in the Drivers’ classification, after a bravura display, attacking from lights to flag. Joining him on the podium were Kimi Raikkonen, second for Lotus and Michael Schumacher third in the Mercedes. Felipe Massa however had an unlucky afternoon: after a lightning getaway off the line, making up two places, the Brazilian suffered with a lack of balance on the car and also was on the receiving end of an aggressive move from Sauber’s Japanese driver, Kamui Kobayashi. He pitted to change the damaged nose and joined the back of the group, eventually coming home sixteenth. Sebastian Vettel retired with a technical problem and Lewis Hamilton retired after a collision, thus seeing the Spaniard pulling away in the classification on 111 points, now 20 ahead of second placed Mark Webber in the Red Bull, now on 91 points. The next round of the championship takes place at historic Silverstone for the British Grand Prix from 6 to 8 July.