Fantastico Alonso wins dramatic European GP

Valencia, Spain : Ferrari's Fernando Alonso broke the 2012 winning record of different drivers by winning his second race of the season and at home in Valencia. Alonso started from 11th on the grid due to a disastrous qualifying session while Vettel grabbed pole. At the lights the Vettel, Hamilton and Grosjean made a clean start and maintained their positions while the shuffling took place behind.

Vettel (Red Bull) took away with the lead of 10secs within couple of laps while Hamilton (McLaren) struggled to keep hold of Grosjean (Lotus). Within few laps Grosjean passed the struggling Hamilton with an outside move while the later could not pose a challenge. Jenson Button on the other McLaren was on the losing edge and was struggling and was the first to pit for new tyres on Lap11 while Alonso on the Ferrai made wonderful moves to slot into 6th as Rosberg and Webber were suffering too.

The race looked set for the Red Bull of Sebastien Vettel as he looked unchallenged even by the Lotus of Grosjean. During the mid part of the race Verge had a crash and the safety car was bought out during which most of the cars went to pit for the 2nd time which worked in the favour of Hamilton who's team again churned up a clumsy pitstop dropping down to 6th from 3rd.

As the safety car came in Vettel eased away while Alonso immediately got ahead of Grosjean and Hamilton moved ahead of Raikkonen with agressive moves while suddenly the unbelieveable happened with Vettel loosing speed and backing off handling the lead to the home boy Alonso much to the wild support of the Spanish crowd. As the race was developing for a way battle to the finish with Alonso just a second ahead of Grosjean with Hamilton and Raikonnen following close by. Within a few lap Romain Grosjean, who was keeping up with the Ferrari lost his electronics of the car and retired with anguish. Hamilton and Raikonnen edged away from the following pack consisting Schumacher, Webber, Maldonado, Button and Ricciardo. The race was still alive.

During the final 10 laps of the race Hamilton was able to shed off Raikonnen and tried to challenge Alonso only but to make a mistake and get caught by Raikonnen in the following laps. Alonso edged away with a 4.5sec lead and Hamilton looked troubled and could not hold off Raikkonen for too long. Raikkonen passed Lewis with just 3laps to go and opened a gap leaving Hamilton on the clutches of Pastor Maldonado's Williams.

On the last lap Maldonado tried few attempts to get ahead of the struggling McLaren but Hamilton brilliantly managed to spoil the moves. It didn't end there as it seemed there would be another attack soon by the Williams driver on Hamilton and so it happened but Hamilton cleanly took the inside line into the esses and held the line giving no space for Maldonado in an desperate attempt to stay in the podium. But Maldonado came into the track on the exit and T boned Hamilton causing a broken nose wing for the Williams and Hamilton hitting the wall to retire out of the race. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes) was handed a chance of podium with Webber close behind as Maldonado limped without a nose cone. As the yellow flags were out and overtaking was prohibited Schumacher was on with a safe chance.

Alonso made his home fans stand on their heels and took the chequered flag with a 6.4secs lead over the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher crossed third, a first podium after his return to F1 with his last being in 2006 in Shanghai.

Wow What a race!! was the call from viewers and F1 fans around the world. Let the tyre wear be a part but the retirement of the top 3 qualifiers and leaders Vettel, Grosjean and Hamilton in dramatic situations and Alonso coming to win from 11th on the grid and Schumacher 12th on the grid was amazing. Maldonado was given a post race penalty for causing collision with Hamilton while Schumacher escaped penalty for using DRS during yellow flags on the last lap.

Alonso gave big celebration to his home crowd by dedicating the Spanish flag to them and became very emotional at the podium. With only driver to win 2 races so far this season, Alonso is leading the championship with 111points and 20 points clear of Webber in second.

The next round being the British GP with Hamilton, Button, Di Resta fighting for home honors while others will try to prove their worth and its a race well anticipated.