Alonso did not get off to a great start and lost the leading spot to Button by the first corner – despite leaving from pole position – while also battling hard against his teammate Felipe Massa to retain 2nd place. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton wanted to get a piece of the action himself and tried to sneak up on Massa, but the two made contact and the Brit suffered a broken right suspension in the process. He therefore recorded a new DNF this season.
The front-running positions remained the same until the first round of pit stops, when Fernando Alonso managed to overtake his McLaren rival thanks to some great work from his pit crew. He maintained his position until the chequered flag – raising the temperature in the grandstands to a maximum – completing a splendid weekend for the Scuderia.
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel scored a valuable 4th place, despite struggling with some engine problems early in the race. He stayed out on the track until the very penultimate lap of the race and built up enough of an advantage from Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg to exit from the pits ahead of the German.
Behind Rosberg in 6th place was Red Bull’s Mark Webber, whose 10 points on Sunday have lifted him back to the leading spot in the overall classification, 5 points ahead of Hamilton. Williams’ Nico Hulkenberg managed a sensational 7th place after managing to keep Webber on his tails for several laps, while followed by Robert Kubica, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.
In the overall classification, Webber now leads from Hamilton by 5 points, while Alonso has moved into 3rd place, 16 points behind the McLaren driver.
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