However, a different strategy and perfect timing of the Safety Car played into Alonso’s hands. Alonso started on the soft tyres and on a light load with a potential three-stop race. Alonso made a few places at the start and then got stuck in the Trulli train but did eventually get past him.
When he stopped, he hadn’t made up as many places as he would have liked and lost a lot of ground behind Trulli. Renault decided to change tactics and they gave him nearly 30 laps worth of fuel.
When Piquet crashed and the Safety Car came out he was now suddenly in a great position, as all the drivers on a standard two-stopper came in leaving just the one-stoppers ahead of Alonso.
The one-stoppers gradually made their stops and Alonso took the lead of the race. Hamilton was being held up by Coulthard, which took out Alonso’s most likely rival for victory out of the equation.
Rosberg had to serve a 10-second stop/go, so that was another potential rival out of the way as well. Alonso drove superbly at this stage of the race and built up a big gap worth a full pit stop ahead of the Hamilton/Coulthard battle.
When the Safety Car came out for the second time, Alonso’s big lead evaporated and Hamilton in third place came back into play.
Alonso could have lost the race at this point but when the Safety Car came in he showed no signs of nerves, and shot off away into the distance again and won the race.
He was now on the harder tyres, which were the right tyre choice at this stage of the race. Starting the race on the unfavourable tyre proved to be a very gutsy choice.
Everything may have fallen Alonso’s way in this race but trying to do something different, is the key factor that won Alonso his race. Ironically it was his team mate Piquet crashing that made the gamble work. I am sure Renault didn’t tell Piquet to crash on purpose!
Nevertheless, this was a great drive by Alonso and reminded everyone why he is one of the best drivers in Formula 1. This victory will remind Alonso how much he enjoys F1 and possibly re-motivate him, and revive his career from this point onwards.
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