Fernando Alonso scored an emotional home victory in front of King Juan Carlos 1 in the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday, reclaiming two points he lost to Michael Schumacher at the Nürburgring as the Ferrari driver finished second to his championship rival. Giancarlo Fisichella finished third while Renault and Ferrari's clean sweep was completed by Felipe Massa in fourth place.

In front of a full house crowd of 131,200, Alonso took off into the lead from his 11th pole position and first at home, although closely challenged by teammate Fisichella as they went into the first corner. Michael and Massa maintained their grid positions, but Kimi Raikkonen shot up from ninth on the grid to fifth, overtaking Honda's Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Jarno Trulli came next, ahead of Toyota teammate Ralf Schumacher, down from sixth to ninth. BMW's Nick Heidfeld completed the top ten.

In the opening laps, Alonso eased away from Fisichella, who was constantly shadowed by Michael, with Massa close behind in fourth place. Raikkonen lost ground in fifth place, but at least opened up a reasonable margin to the Honda pair. Trulli continued to hold up Ralf Schumacher until the German's frustration resulted in the pair colliding on lap 16 to the detriment of Schumacher's nose section. Alonso had a 10s lead when he made his first pit stop on lap 17 with teammate Fisichella coming in a lap later, and Massa a lap after that. Michael, however, waited until lap 23, a lap later than Raikkonen, to make his first pit stop and when he emerged, he was still ten seconds behind Alonso, but now in second place ahead of Fisichella. When the Italian was called on his radio in turn three on lap 26, he was so distracted that he lost control of the car and ran off the circuit, losing 5.5s and rejoining 8.2s behind Michael. Massa was now fairly close behind, but Raikkonen was a long way back. The Hondas didn't stop until laps 24 and 25, with Button rejoining ahead of Barrichello, while Trulli pitted on lap 27 and Heidfeld having a long first stint and finally coming in on lap 29.

At half distance, lap 33, Alonso still had a 10s lead over Michael Schumacher, but the Ferrari driver was already resigned to second place, having failed to make any ground in clean air when Fisichella had pitted earlier. Michael's advantage over the Italian hovered around eight or nine seconds, but Massa struck traffic and never really managed to challenge the second Renault driver. Raikkonen was once again dropping back, his deficit being 16s at half distance, while Button was around five seconds behind the McLaren driver, holding a similar margin over teammate Barrichello. Alonso pitted on lap 40, leaving him with a final stint of 26 laps - unless he was due to come in again. But Fisichella pitted a lap later, Massa two laps after that, while Michael and Raikkonen both pitted on lap 46.

Alonso now had a 12s advantage over Michael and that would rise to 18s as the Ferrari driver eased up in the final stages, leaving Alonso to take a fine home win. Michael came home a resigned second, but never really challenged by Fisichella although the gap came down from 13s to 5.4s in the closing stages. Massa was another 5.9s back although he had been as little as 3.5s behind. Raikkonen was a massive 27s further back, being closed on by Button in the closing stages, although the Honda driver was never really in a position to challenge. Barrichello was a lapped seventh while Heidfeld scored the final World Championship point, although Mark Webber closed up on him at the end.
 

The result means that both Alonso and Renault have eased away from Michael Schumacher and Ferrari respectively in the championship, but as Michael pointed out, there is still a long way to go.

Jean Todt: "We were expecting a very close race and that's what we got, although obviously we were hoping it would work out in our favour. Nevertheless, this weekend confirmed we are competitive, even if today, we have to admit our closest rivals were stronger. We had opted for a strategy that meant carrying a bit more fuel at the start than those ahead of us on the grid, but it did not work out for us. All the same, Michael and Felipe picked up thirteen points which are very valuable and consolidate our positions in both championships. Now we have to put a great deal of effort, along with our technical partners, first and foremost Bridgestone, to be even more competitive in the next few races."

Michael Schumacher: "The race result was decided in the first stint, as Fernando was able to pull out quite a gap, because I simply did not have the pace to stay with him. I was not held up by Giancarlo. After the lap times we had done earlier in the weekend, this was surprising, but we have seen before that in Barcelona, very small things can change your performance quite quickly. It seems that today, this had a negative effect on us and a positive one on Renault. Eight points is still good and I could say that while I was disappointed to have only won two points last Sunday, here I can be happy to have only lost two. There is still a long way to go and we will keep on fighting to try and win."

Felipe Massa: "The car worked well and our pace was what we expected, but today, our rivals were simply a bit quicker than us! I had some traffic in a few crucial phases of the race and that's one of the reasons I could not close on Giancarlo to try and get past him in the run of pit stops. Overall, we have picked up some important points for the championship."

Ross Brawn: "The car and the Bridgestone tyres performed well, but we need to find a bit more performance. There were moments when we got very close to our rivals, but I think Fernando had a slight edge today. In the first part of the race, when Giancarlo was ahead of our cars we knew we would be unable to stay in touch with Fernando and so we waited for the pit stop to try and get past Giancarlo, which Michael managed to do. However, in the next stint, we realised we were not quick enough to aim for victory. Now we have to work on improving the package for the forthcoming races."

Michael Schumacher: 2nd + 18.502 66 laps chassis 254; Felipe Massa: 4th + 29.859 66 laps chassis 250; Temperatures: air 26°C, track 36/37°C