But having effectively cut the corner, Maldonado came bustling back just as
Hamilton swung left through T13, hitting the McLaren broadside and sending
it spinning across the track and out of the race.
Clearly furious, Hamilton held both hands up in the air in exasperation before
flinging his steering wheel out of the cockpit. This being the 2012 version,
Hamilton had cooled down by the time he returned to the interview pen.
“I don’t really know what happened if I am honest,” Hamilton said
diplomatically. “I went into the corner and I didn’t come out. I only
remember sitting in the wall with only a couple of laps to go.
“I’ve had a bad day in the office but that’s motor racing. It does change a
lot [in the world championship], we lost a lot of points today but
fortunately for us a couple of the people we are fighting, like Sebastian
[Vettel], weren’t able to score either so it’s not the be all and end all,
but it does make things tougher.
“You put your heart and soul into some things and when you don’t get the
result you feel you worked for it’s very tough, but that’s life.”
You can bet he was not quite so measured when speaking to the stewards.
Maldonado did his best to pin the blame on the Briton. “Lewis did not leave me
any space,” protested the 27 year-old, who has impressed with his speed
during his short time in Formula
One but less so with his ability to avoid race incidents.
“When he was pushing me off the track the floor of my car caught the kerb and
that is what caused me to jump into him. I think it would have been better
if he had backed off a little bit and not driven so aggressively.”
The stewards were not buying it, handing Maldonado a 20-second penalty
post-race which dropped him from 10th to 12th .
That will be of little consolation to Hamilton, who surrendered the lead of an
enthralling championship to Alonso, and you have to say the Spaniard fully
deserved it for his phenomenal consistency. Yesterday, incredibly, was
Alonso’s 20th points finish in a row, all but two of them top-five.
This was the most impressive yet. Spain’s victory against France in the
football on Saturday night, thanks to two goals from Xabi Alonso, was
expected; Spain’s victory in yesterday’s grand prix, thanks to another
Alonso, was not.
Valencia is not known for producing wacky races and it looked to be all over
at the halfway stage. Vettel, Red Bull’s world champion, had made the
perfect start from pole and carved out a 20-second lead over Lotus’ Romain
Grosjean by lap 30. But the introduction of a safety car following a
collision between Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Caterham’s Heikki
Kovalainen turned the race on its head.
Vettel retired with an alternator failure on lap 35, and Alonso, who had
battled his way through from 11th on grid, suddenly found himself in the
lead. It looked for a while as if Grosjean might catch him, only for the
Lotus to succumb to the same electrical gremlins as Vettel.
The partisan crowd were on their feet cheering, even more so when Alonso
stopped on his victory lap with an unspecified “technical problem” and
unfurled a Spanish flag in front of them.
Behind him Kimi Raikkonen took second place for Lotus, having caught and
passed Hamilton whose collision with Maldonado handed third place to Michael
Schumacher.
The seven-time world champion had started in 12th and survived a post-race
stewards enquiry into his use of DRS. It was that sort of a race.
Jenson Button, meanwhile, said he was not displeased to have finished eighth,
considering a disastrous start which saw him drop from ninth to 13th.
“I don’t think we did a bad job in terms of strategy, but I think a few people
lucked into their strategies,” the embattled McLaren driver said.
“It’s still not a good result but I had fun out there, that’s the main thing,
and the car felt good at some times in the race.”
The truth is Button was also hugely fortunate that so many drivers ahead of
him either retired or fell backwards as a result of collisions. Either way,
his championship hopes are looking dead and buried.
Not so Alonso, the king of consistency, who became the first driver to win two
races this season, while Hamilton was left speechless.
He did say one interesting thing before he left though. “You never let people
past,” he answered when asked if he should have left more room for
Maldonado. “You have got to race for every position.” He may have been right.
Fans may love him for that attitude. The stewards may have backed him. But had
he ceded position he would have at least 12 points more.
What would Alonso have done?
European Grand Prix result:
Alonso – Raikkonen – Schumacher – Webber – Hulkenberg – Rosberg – Di Resta –
Button – Perez – Maldonado
F1 drivers’ world championship standings:
Alonso (111 points) – Webber (91 points) – Hamilton (88 points) – Vettel (85
points) – Rosberg (75 points) – Raikkonen (73 points) – Grosjean (53 points)
– Button (49 points)