STORY OF THE DAY: Alonso’s Remarkable Valencia Recovery

Fernando Alonso won the 2012 European Grand Prix at Valencia in the number 5 Ferrari F2012 after starting eleventh. He became the season’s first repeat winner and moved into the lead of the Drivers’ Championship. Kimi Raikkonen finished second, while Michael Schumacher took the final podium of his Formula One career.

Alonso carved through the field with decisive overtaking and well-timed pit work before a safety car erased Sebastian Vettel’s large advantage. At the restart he passed Romain Grosjean around the outside of the first corner. Vettel and later Grosjean retired with technical failures, leaving Alonso to control an emotional home victory before the Spanish crowd.

The F2012 was built around a carbon-fibre composite chassis and Ferrari’s 2.4-litre Tipo 056 V8 with KERS. It introduced pull-rod front suspension, an unusual choice in contemporary Formula One, and initially presented aerodynamic correlation problems. Persistent development transformed it into a durable and effective championship challenger.

Born in Oviedo, Alonso won two World Championships with Renault before joining Ferrari in 2010. His ability to extract results from difficult machinery became central to his reputation during his five seasons with the Scuderia. The Valencia drive, combining aggression, judgement and consistency, was among his finest Ferrari victories.