Almost inevitably, the win went to pole man Sebastian Vettel, the Red Bull Racing driver taking his sixth victory from eight races. Joining the German and the Spaniard on the podium was third placed Mark Webber.

When the lights went out, Felipe got a fantastic start, shooting past his team-mate and Hamilton to come up behind second placed Webber. But the Brazilian got a bit boxed in by the Australian at the first corner, which allowed Fernando to come back again to take third, so that Vettel led from Webber and the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers, with Hamilton, Rosberg and Button leading the pursuit.

By lap 4, Webber had dropped to 2.1 seconds behind the leader, with Fernando just a second off the Australian. On lap 6, Canada winner Button managed to pass Rosberg to go sixth behind his McLaren team-mate Hamilton. On lap 11, Alonso was just 0.6 behind Webber, as Heidfeld, Barrichello and Kobayashi began the first run of pit stops. The next lap saw Hamilton, Rosberg and Sutil pit. When Webber pitted on lap 13 it temporarily promoted the Ferraris to second and third places. Vettel, Fernando, Button, Schumacher, Di Resta and Buemi all came in on lap 14. Felipe who led the previous lap now came in on lap 15 as Schumacher had to pit again for a new nose, having collided with a Renault. The run of pit stops had not changed the order of the top three, so that Fernando found himself third again behind the Red Bulls.

On lap 18, Fernando put in a fastest race lap, as he closed to 0.8 of Webber and that gap was halved to 0.4 on lap 20, which had the home crowd on its feet and they went wild when one lap later, the Spaniard got past the Australian at the right hander at the end of the long straight, to take second place. The Ferrari man was now 3 seconds behind Vettel. Hamilton pitted for a second time on lap 24, which saw Felipe go back up to fourth, behind Webber, who was closing gradually on Fernando. Lap 28 and Webber pitted the Red Bull for a second time, rejoining fourth behind Felipe, while Fernando made his second stop one lap later. This meant Vettel led Felipe by almost 20 seconds. The German then pitted on lap 30 and emerged from pit lane just ahead of the Brazilian Ferrari driver, while Button and Rosberg also changed tyres. Webber then got past Felipe, as he came in for his second stop next time round but in the second run of pit stops Webber had got the better of Fernando, so once again it was a Red Bull one-two. Felipe’s chances of doing better than fifth took a blow on lap 31, when there was a problem with the left rear wheel nut when he made his second pit stop, which slowed him by a significant four seconds.

With 20 laps remaining of the 57 lap race, Vettel was maintaining a comfortable 2.3s cushion over Webber, while Fernando was very gradually closing up on the Australian, with a gap of 1.3. In fifth place, Felipe had closed the gap to Hamilton to 4.8. Webber made his third and final stop on lap 42, so that Fernando was now second and Hamilton followed down pit lane. On lap 45, Fernando made his final tyre change and came out in heavy traffic which slowed him for a while, but crucially he had got ahead of Webber by running three laps longer on the soft tyres while the Red Bull man was on mediums, and so the Ferrari was lying second to Vettel, who pitted on lap 47, but still led Fernando by 8.6s. From then, the order remained unchanged, although there were plenty of fascinating fights further down the order to keep the bigger than usual Valencia crowd entertained.

Behind the podium trio came Lewis Hamilton, who finished unchallenged as Felipe in fifth had lost ground after his slow pit stop. Jenson Button was sixth in the other McLaren, with Nico Rosberg seventh for Mercedes. Eighth and the only points scorer to get through 57 laps with just two tyre stops was Alguersuari in the Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso. The final points went to ninth placed Adrian Sutil for Force India and Nick Heidfeld for Renault. It’s a busy part of the season and now the F1 circus heads for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in two weeks time, an event and a track which has played a significant part in the Prancing Horse history. But history is no match for aerodynamic downforce and that will be one of the key elements in Round 9 of the championship.

Stefano Domenicali: “Our only target has to be the victory- we are Ferrari after all – but today, all things considered, we can be pleased with this result. It was an exciting and very evenly matched contest: Fernando and Felipe drove great races, fighting right to the end with their main rivals. The Spanish driver, in front of his home fans, managed to end up ahead of a Red Bull to secure a fantastic podium finish. The only negative point came at Felipe’s second pit stop, which might well have cost him the chance of fighting right to the end with Hamilton for fourth place: but he too drove a strong race, especially from the start where he managed to make up two places and attack Webber. Now, we must continue to push on the development of the car in preparation for Silverstone, where we want to confirm the progress we have made at a circuit whose characteristics are less suited to the 150º Italia. There, we will also find out if the technical changes recommended by the FIA regarding the use of the exhausts, which are to be introduced at that race, will change anything or not: everyone will lose a bit in terms of performance, so it’s a case of seeing who pays the highest price.”

Fernando Alonso: “I was determined to get on the podium. In my trophy collection, the only ones now missing are from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and, naturally, India. I hope I can complete the collection by the end of the year! I was really pleased to taste champagne again, especially in front of this lovely crowd in Valencia, an amazing city where there is a great passion for racing. This result means a lot to me. It’s hard to see the grandstands when you are driving, but I could feel there was great enthusiasm when I passed Webber. This is a positive result for the whole team, as it confirms we are working in the right direction. Today, the first hundred metres were not that great but I knew that starting on the dirty side would cost me something: then I was lucky enough to find there was still a gap on the outside and I managed to make up one place on my grid position. It was important to shake off the McLarens immediately, as they were slower than us today, which meant we concentrated on Webber and reached our objective. Then, when I was sure he was behind me, we tried to think about Vettel: you never know what can happen in Formula 1. The strategy paid off and sticking mainly with the Softs was the right choice. The Red Bulls are still significantly superior, but it was equally significant to stay close and stop them getting a one-two. We must continue like this, race after race. We know that, at Silverstone, it will be very tough because it is one of the tracks which best suits their car.”

Felipe Massa: “It was a good race spent constantly fighting other drivers. I tried to get the most out of the Option tyres because we reckoned that with the Prime, our pace was not at its best. It was a shame about the problem at my second pit stop, when I lost those four or five seconds which cost me the chance of fighting Hamilton for fourth place. I think that, from what have seen in performance terms, today we should have got both our cars ahead of the McLarens, and we only half succeeded in that. I got a very good start, passing Hamilton and Fernando. Then, I also tried to attack Webber, but he closed the door on me and we almost touched, so Fernando got the chance to go round the outside and pass me back. I had a few problems with my second set of soft tyres, but with the next one, which was even more worn at the beginning, things went much better. In the end, even the Mediums were not so bad and I was able to do competitive times with them. Now we come to the Silverstone weekend. We will see if we will manage to confirm the progress that we have seen in the last three races. Also important will be what tyre choice Pirelli makes: clearly if they go for the Medium/Hard combination, it will be more difficult for us.”

Pat Fry: “Overall, it was a good race for us. Going into it, the aim of our strategy was to reduce to a minimum the number of laps we would do on the Prime, both because we did not know what to expect from them and because, from the little we could tell this weekend, our performance was not up to that of our main rivals. On top of that there was the traffic to consider and the fact we were not so sure that the effect of the DRS would be enough to overtake cars that were significantly slower. That is why we did not try to chase after the others, always pitting early, thus lengthening the final stint on the softs which, even though they were very well worn, were faster than the first laps on the Medium. This decision paid off, allowing Fernando to get ahead of Webber to bring home a great second place. Felipe also drove a good race: it’s a shame about the problem with his left rear wheel nut at his second stop, which cost him precious seconds. As for the rest, the mechanics did a very good job, with stop times that were more than respectable. We are still not a match for the best in terms of outright performance and we must work a lot to catch them, especially at tracks where aerodynamic efficiency makes the difference. We are closing the gap but we have to do even more and everyone at Maranello is absolutely determined to achieve that goal.”