Fernando Alonso has hailed his Valencia win as the most emotional of his career after he came from 11th on the grid to first place.
Emotional Spaniard admits winning at home ultimate high
Fernando Alonso has described his unexpected Valencia win as the most emotional of his career after he came from 11th on the grid to become the first two-time winner of the 2012 season.
The Spaniard's hopes of winning in front of his home fans for just the second time appeared over on Saturday after he was the highest-profile casualty in an incredibly-tight Q2 session which left him just outside the top 10 on the grid.
But on Sunday his race would turn into the stuff of dreams as, after picking up three places on the first lap, the Ferrari driver made up further places through the first pit-stop phase before inheriting third place in the second stops when McLaren botched Lewis Hamilton's stop following the arrival of the Safety Car.
At the restart the double World Champion then pulled off a stunning pace around the outside of turn two on the Lotus of Romain Grosjean and then almost immediately found himself in the lead as long-time race leader Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull ground to a sudden halt.
From there the Spaniard controlled the race typically smoothly to come home for his 29th career win and regain the championship lead. Afterwards he admitted he was overwhelmed to win on home soil again to cap a successful weekend for Spanish sport.
"It's really difficult to express in words what is the feeling at the moment," Alonso said.
"Winning the home Grand Prix is something unique, a very special feeling. I had the opportunity [to do it] in Barcelona 2006 with Renault and I still remember that day perfectly and now did the same here in Valencia with this special team, Ferrari.
"The grandstands full of red colour, full of Spanish flags and with the Euro football championship also, a lot of Spanish atmosphere inside all of us and [I'm] feeling very proud to be a Spanish sportsman at the moment.
"Winning in Spain this race is probably the best victory I ever felt, or in terms of emotions, nothing maybe compares to this one."
Alonso was able to hold an impromptu celebration with his fans at the end of the race when a glitch with his F2012 after he had taken the chequered flag meant he had to park up on the side of the track and wait for the medical car to come and pick him up. He admitted it was a special moment.
"We had a problem in the car and we stopped," he explained.
"It was the right place maybe because we had two grandstands there. It took a little bit of time to arrive with the medical care and we had like eight or 10 minutes all the people saying things about me and saying congratulations and they wanted me to jump and funny games.
"So we enjoyed a little bit those minutes."
