2013 Spanish GP: Fernando Alonso wins from Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso re-wrote history on Sunday when he won the Spanish Grand Prix from fifth place on the grid.

Perhaps the sport can't win: the Spanish Grand Prix used to be notorious for a lack of action. Whatever, it's not something that will concern the winner right now; of more concern to Alonso is how he can overhaul the 17-point deficit to Vettel in the Drivers' Championship as soon as possible. Rosberg led the first 11 laps but his problems began just as soon as he made his first stop. Rejoining ahead of Alonso, the Mercedes was soon passed around the outside into Turn One, with Vettel also getting ahead a few corners later. Massa, who started ninth after a grid penalty, started to show his hand at the same time by jumping Raikkonen but both Ferraris soon revealed themselves also to be on four-stop races: Massa and Alonso respectively pitting for the second time on laps 20 and 22. By half distance Alonso led Massa by 11 seconds, with Vettel 6.9s further down the road and Raikkonen in hot pursuit. The Lotus was past the Red Bull shortly afterwards - as it needed to be as the race leader was pulling away. With Alonso and Massa both stopping again on lap 37, the former passed Raikkonen on the next lap but the different strategies - and consequent need to manage the rubber - meant that the Lotus driver simply let him past. Raikkonen had for a time appeared capable of challenging Alonso by virtue of his strategy. He also bucked the trend among the frontrunners by sticking with the medium option tyre for the balance of the race. The switch to hards finally came on lap 46 but when Alonso came in for the prime tyre four laps later and rejoined well ahead of his rival, a home victory was all-but assured. Alonso will also be delighted that Massa was able to take points off Vettel. Fourth and fifth places will not have been on the World Champions' agenda, although Webber did well to make up ground after falling to 11th on the opening lap. Both Mercedes and McLaren placed their drivers on split strategies and the latter will be happier with how they panned out - but not by much. Button fell to 17th place on lap one but stopped three times on his way to eighth, ekeing out his tyres longer than Perez after starting six places behind the Mexican. Rosberg also stopped three times, one less than Hamilton, whose mid-race frustration turned to bemusement afterwards. Mercedes had spent the weekend trying to improve their race-pace deficit but on this showing they still have plenty of work to do. Elsewhere, Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo claimed the final points-paying position, one place ahead of Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez. In fact, the Mexican rookie set the race's fastest lap - a telling statistic in the context of drivers operating well within their capabilities.