The recent victory of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso at the 2012 Formula 1 Grand Prix of Europe in Valencia last Sunday was anything but predictable. In this race, not even Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel finished the race. Meanwhile, Alonso started at 11th place but was able to get back its lead in the world championship. During the first 34 laps, Red Bull’s Vettel dominated in the winding track round the Spanish port. From Vettel’s pole position, he couldn’t be bumped off the lead as Hamilton kept Lotus’ Romain Grosjean stuck behind his McLaren. Finally, Grosjean was able to get past Hamilton on the tenth lap. However, Grosjean didn’t get anywhere near beating Vettel as a mainly processional race went past its halfway point.
On the 27th lap, Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso crashed into Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham. As a result, the safety car had to be deployed on the 28th. This closed up the field until the 34th lap when racing resumed. Vettel instantly got back into the lead but by the end of the lap, Red Bull had stopped by the side of the track. Alonso was gradually climbing from the start when he got to eighth place.
He reached third when the safety car came out but he elbowed out Grosjean on the 34th lap when the race resumed and so he got the lead when Vettel struck out. Grosjean was very persistent and maintained the gap at less than a second but he abruptly slowed on the 40th lap and came to a stop by the side of the track due to an alternator problem.
