Sports / Motor Racing
Alonso snatches dramatic victory
(AFP)
Updated: 2007-07-23 08:31
Double world champion Fernando Alonso brilliantly won the European Grand
Prix on Sunday as confusion reigned at the Nurburgring.
Alonso's third win of the season leaves him just two points behind
McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton in the overall drivers' standings.
The Spaniard made the most of his opportunity when torrential rain and
car failures combined to leave him in a straight fight with Ferrari's
Felipe Massa.
Alonso passed Massa superbly in the closing stages to win by eight
seconds from the Brazilian, Australian Mark Webber was third for Red Bull
Racing.
"I enjoy this kind of race, it was incredible," Alonso said afterwards.
"In dry conditions the Ferraris were quicker than us. The rain at the end
helped, our car seems to be quicker in the wet. Always when it rains I am
quite happy and I have some fun."
Webber paid tribute to his team as they collected their first podium
finish of the season.
"It's a podium I can enjoy," he said. "It is a special day for us no
doubt. Red Bull deserve it with the amount of effort that is going in.
You can say that we are improving but it is results that count."
Massa's teammate Kimi Raikkonen started from pole position but his poor
record on the German circuit continued as he was forced to retire after
34 laps.
It was also a tough weekend for leader Hamilton who finished ninth.
A bad crash in qualifying left Hamilton starting from tenth on the grid
and his record run of nine podium finishes in nine races was always
likely to end after he spun off the track early on.
Hamilton's Mclaren was eventually lifted back onto the track by a crane
but the rookie rejoined the race at the back of the field, a lap behind
and with too much ground to make up.
Alex Wurz of Williams was fourth ahead of Red Bull's David Coulthard in
fifth with Nick Heidfeld sixth for BMW.
The final point-scorers were Heidfeld's teammate Robert Kubica and Heikki
Kovalainen of Renault who were seventh and eighth respectively.
The race started in a sprinkling of rain, Massa darted past Alonso into
second place while Kubica and Heidfeld collided just behind.
Heidfeld, the German racing in front of his home crowd, came off worse
and had to go into the pits for extensive repairs.
Then the heavens opened. Track conditions quickly became treacherous and
the need for wet weather tyres became obvious.
All the cars had to crowd into the pitlane except for debutant Markus
Winkelhock of the Spyker team.
The 27-year-old German had made an instant decision when the rain began
and headed into the pits as the race started.
Incredibly, as all kinds of havoc broke out around him, Winkelhock found
himself in the lead by over 30 seconds.
The deluge was so torrential that even the wet tyres could not provide
sufficient grip.
Hamilton, Scott Speed of Torro Rosso, Nico Rosberg of Williams, Adrian
Sutil of Spyker, Jenson Button of Honda and Speed's teammate Vitantonio
Liuzzi each slid off the track, the first four all at the opening corner.
Sutil, Rosberg, Speed, Liuzzi and Button were all out of the race, the
Briton later describing the first section of the circuit as a "lake".
As the complete chaos threatened to turn into farce the race was stopped
for twenty minutes so order could be restored.
Twenty minutes later bright sunshine had broken out as the race resumed
behind the safety car.
Winkelhock led from Massa and Alonso as the cars went round the track in
a procession for four laps but when the racing began the Spyker man soon
began to slip back.
The cars began to change back to dry tyres after 12 laps as the race
reverted to some kind of normality. Winkelhock's big day ended in misery
after he was forced to retire by an engine failure.
Raikkonen had restarted in seventh place but he was soon tucked in behind
Massa and Alonso as the three leaders began to open up a gap from Mark
Webber in fourth place.
Further back, Heidfeld, perhaps smarting from his earlier troubles, made
an aggressive move to overtake Ralf Schumacher.
The two cars touched sending Schumacher's Toyota into the gravel and out
of the race.
Raikkonen was the next man to go, his Ferrari letting him down on lap 34
and leaving Massa and Alonso to fight for the victory.
The rain returned with eight laps remaining and after the cars changed
back to wet tyres Alonso began a relentless attack on Massa's lead. Again
and again the Spaniard tried to pass and Massa had to defend desperately.
Eventually Alonso squeezed through around the outside of the Ferrari, the
two cars briefly making contact before Massa was forced to yield and
settle for second place.
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