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Fernando Alonso closed the gap on Lewis Hamilton to two points in the battle for the drivers' championship after taking victory in a stunning European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany.
The Spaniard made the most of his opportunity when torrential rain and car failures combined to leave him in a straight fight with Ferrari's Felipe Massa for the chequered flag.
Alonso passed Massa superbly in the closing stages to win by eight seconds from the Brazilian. Australian Mark Webber was third for Red Bull Racing.
Massa's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen started from pole position but his poor record on the German circuit continued as he was forced to retire after 34 laps.
It was also a tough weekend for leader Hamilton who finished ninth. A bad crash in qualifying left Hamilton starting from tenth on the grid and his record run of nine podium finishes in nine races was always likely to end after he spun off the track early on.
Hamilton's McLaren was eventually lifted back onto the track by a crane but the rookie rejoined the race at the back of the field, a lap behind and with too much ground to make up.
Alex Wurz, driving for Williams, was fourth ahead of Red Bull's David Coulthard in fifth with Nick Heidfeld sixth for BMW Sauber.
The final point-scorers were Heidfeld's team-mate Robert Kubica and Heikki Kovalainen, of Renault, who were seventh and eighth respectively.
The race started in a sprinkling of rain, Massa darted past Alonso into second place while Kubica and Heidfeld collided just behind. Heidfeld, racing in front of his home crowd, came off worse and had to go into the pits for extensive repairs.
Then the heavens opened. Track conditions quickly became treacherous and the need for wet weather tyres became obvious. All the cars had to crowd into the pitlane except for debutant Markus Winkelhock of the Spyker team.
The 27-year-old German had made an instant decision when the rain began and headed into the pits as the race started. Incredibly, as all kinds of havoc broke out around him, Winkelhock found himself in the lead by over 30 seconds.
The deluge was so torrential that even the wet tyres could not provide sufficient grip. Hamilton, Scott Speed of Torro Rosso, Nico Rosberg of Williams, Adrian Sutil of Spyker, Jenson Button of Honda and Speed's teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi each slid off the track, the first four all at the opening corner.
Sutil, Rosberg, Speed, Liuzzi and Button were all out of the race, the Briton later describing the first section of the circuit as a "lake".
As the complete chaos threatened to turn into farce the race was stopped for twenty minutes so order could be restored. Twenty minutes later bright sunshine had broken out as the race resumed behind the safety car.
Winkelhock led from Massa and Alonso as the cars went round the track in a procession for four laps but when the racing began the Spyker man soon began to slip back.
The cars began to change back to dry tyres after 12 laps as the race reverted to some kind of normality. Winkelhock's big day ended in misery after he was forced to retire by an engine failure.
Raikkonen had restarted in seventh place but he was soon tucked in behind Massa and Alonso as the three leaders began to open up a gap from Mark Webber in fourth place.
Further back, Heidfeld, perhaps smarting from his earlier troubles, made an aggressive move to overtake Ralf Schumacher. The two cars touched sending Schumacher's Toyota into the gravel and out of the race.
Raikkonen was the next man to go, his Ferrari letting him down on lap 34 and leaving Massa and Alonso to fight for the victory.
The rain returned with eight laps remaining and after the cars changed back to wet tyres Alonso began a relentless attack on Massa's lead. Again and again the Spaniard tried to pass and Massa had to defend desperately.
Eventually Alonso squeezed through around the outside of the Ferrari, the two cars briefly making contact before Massa was forced to yield and settle for second place.
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Alonso is the best ever.He should drive a Spanish car to give
the other drivers a chance.
richard, Northampton,
Who is being clearly benificiated now?
Not even with suspicious cranes (Why was only Hamilton helped), or moving forward with safety car on circuit (which annuled his lap behind),...
Congratulations to the english sports journalists because of your sincere, objective and clear point of view.
What were all of you writing now if the protagonist of the crane´s chapter would had been Alonso?
I respect your patriotism but your credibility is under suspiction in whole world. What a Shame!!
Rebekah, Donostia, Gipuzkoa
Hardest race on season, thats why Alson is the #1
Peter, Manchester,
Well done alonso, you have demostrated who rules when luck is with you...
y si xD casi todos somos españoles jajaja
Paco, Córdoba, España
Alonso is a master of f1, when is rainning he don´t have rivals on the road
Anthony, London, UK
ALONSO THE BEST¡¡¡¡¡¡
Rupert, Swansea, UK
Alonso showed who's the best. He is just great in any condition. Congratulations!
Gary, Newcastle, UK
Great Alonso, as you said luck can change quickly. Hamilton bad luck started satarday with a weel failure and continued 2day. Rakinen as well with gear box pbm. What is great now is gonna be the fight between 2 great drivers. An expirienced and very good driver (Alonso)and a yound and talented driver (Hamilton). Gonna be a very good interested and of the championship.
Desi, Portsmouth, England
Fighting against the "machine". Last championship was designed to be the last great Schumi's exhibition and this one is incredibly manipulated to be Hamilton's first. They have forgotten that in front of them they have the best driver ever: Fernando Alonso (only comparable to Senna), and he will put them in their place... This is not a sport, this is an embarrasing plot agaisnt Alonso.
manu, Asturias, España
Fernando Alonso is the best driver in the world.
John, London, England
Just a quiet word to the more partisan Spanish contributers. Lewis was the only driver lifted back on to the track because he was the only one with the prescence of mind to keep his engine running. What is the point of lifting a car out of the gravel on to a more dangerous area of the track if it can't move from there?
Brian, Guildfford, UK
Amazing Alonso! you´re the boss, the true leader. Magic Alonso. The Master
Myriam, Jaén, Spain
Hahaha!
The spanish crowd has taken over this place!
Hamilton is awsome, but Alonso is awsome and has more experience.
About Hamilton going back to the pit lane thing, well, I rather not give an opinion as my only (biased) source of information is spanish media. As someone who judges F1 by what The Sun says...
Martin, Mallorca, Spain
alonso number one
ciberlu, alicante,
May the best win, not the chosen one. Helping Hamilton with the crane was just unbelievable. Allowing him to get into the track meanwhile others cars raced was just stupid and dangerous.
Interesting, heartbreking and astonishing race. Wish every grand prix was just like this.
SERO, Granada, Spain
I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Ferrari fan and all I can say is that my most cherished dream would be for him to be driving a red car, instead of Raikkonen. I watched Micheal use every inch of the rules, the track, the team for years to win points, races anc Championships for us. The mark of a true champion is not getting podiums when you're in the best car - it's day like this when you deliver wins from nowhere. Kudos to Fernando and to the Modenese- WAKE UP!!!!!!!!
Stuart, Johannesburg, South Africa
Re: Hamilton's crane assistance
1) The race had been stopped at this point, so there's no transgression.
2) Marshals are in any case allowed to assist a driver if it acts to remove the car from a dangerous position. It happens all the time at the Monaco hairpin.
Anyway, a great race and a worthy winner.
Mark Heenan, Stafford, UK
Any car which is in a position "judged to be dangerous" can be moved back into the race - Schumacher took advantage of that many times, quite often by deliberately parking in a dangerous position, and of course any position at all can be "judged to be dangerous" if it's the guy they want to keep in the race who stopped there.
Why Hamilton and not the other five, I don't know, unless it's because only Hamilton had kept the engine running. If they stalled, there's nothing can be done.
Paul Heyes, Sheffield, United Kingdom
It was a superb, if somewhat chaotic race. Well done Alonso, thoroughly deserved victory. Be careful Madrid, you may well live to eat your words because Hamilton drove beautifully. This championship is shaping up to be a cracker.
Speno, Kingston, Jamaica
This is a fight between one great driver (Hamilton) and another one that will be in the Olympus with Schmacher, Senna, Prost and Fangio. Bravo Fernando eres el mejor.
Felipe, Zaragoza, España
too much for Hamilton, wellcome to the reality.
madrid, madrid,
Beautiful race, great Alonso, amazing driving Hamilton, never giving up. This year is going to be exciting until the very last curve.
Jose, Madrid,
Bravo!! ALONSO, thank you for such an incredible race! We are all proud of you! Showing the world who is the Number One.
Alberto Moreno, Madrid, Spain
Jurio - If your car is in a dangerous position it can be moved and can be put back onto the track. There was a similar case with Schumacher.
Miguel - Isn't your rant against is a little pathetic... given that your man won?
Bob, London,
Who is Alonso? HE' S THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This race has been fantastic, and although Hamilton hasn't gotten any point I think he was lucky because why did the crane return him to the circuit? And finally he could finish the race.
mARIO, Langreo, Asturias (Spain)
Great , Fernando. You are the best.
Felipe, don't worry
Lewis, be pacient. Your turn is coming...
Guillermo, Madrid, Spain
Alonso is the best one. Today everybody can see who is the Champion.
Norton, Seville, Spain
Alonso es el mejor
Hierro 56, Salamanca, Spain
Excellent race from Fernando... The guy has got the nerve, the skill and the balls of the great champs from the past. Nice to see some off track mind games and action again. This is what F1 is about!!
Christian, London, UK
Alonso is the best one. Everybody can see who is the Champion today. Hamlton is a fast driver, but Fernando is a master.
Norton, Seville, Spain
Alonso wins again
Bad luck Amilton :(
Jhon, London,
It was a typical Alonso race. never give up until the end. Even when it was a dry sometimes. You could sence that this was his race. I will bet now he will win the Championship. This is just what he needed. Massive boost. with seven races to go. He will be the man to beat, no questions about that.
brahim, nieuwegein, Holland
That crane operation was supposed to be illegal. Hamilton shouldn't have kept racing, but it's not the first time he does something illegal and goes unpunished (Indianapolis, swaying more than three times in a straight to block Alonso was also illegal) because he's the convenient rookie that will expand the F1 audience to people who didn't watch the F1. The camera was shamefully biased, showing Hamilton running alone in the last positions all the time, while Massa and Alonso, first and second, were barely shown until the end of the race. Despite all this, it seems Ecclestone and Dennis will have to... suffer Alonso closing the gap with the protege.
Miguel Pérez, Madrid, Spain
Now the championship is starting to get interesting!
As for Hamilton getting so quick help from the crane, I don't think there's a similar case in F1 history. Still astonished.
Jurio Jurado, London, England
Alonso has demonstrated to everyone who is the best driver in the world. We all in Spain are very proud of you, Bravo, Fernando!!!
Jorge, Barcelona, Spain
Well done Fernando!!! Thank you for such amazing race...
By the way, why just Hamilton got the lift back to the race when there were other 5 cars on the gravel?
Ikua, madrid, spain