Alonso celebrates historic milestone

FERNANDO ALONSO celebrated a key milestone in Ferrari’s history at Silverstone yesterday — and then created a little slice of his own by taking a superb victory in an action-packed British Grand Prix.

Alonso was at his imperious best as he made the most of changeable conditions to claim the Scuderia’s first victory of the season.

The win was Alonso’s 27th in F1 — taking him joint fifth in the list of all-time winners, level with Jackie Stewart — and came just hours after the Spaniard delighted the Silverstone crowd by taking to the track for two demonstration laps in one of the team’s classic cars.

The Ferrari 375 was the first car to deliver Ferrari an F1 victory back in 1951, when Jose Froilan Gonzalez took the chequered flag in only the second race staged by Silverstone in the World Championship era.

Sixty years on, Alonso provided a fitting tribute to the achievement by delivering win number 216 and breathing much-needed life into a campaign that had hitherto delivered little cheer for the Prancing Horse’s legion of fans. “It is a very special win,” said Alonso. “I think Silverstone is a special event for every driver competing in Formula One.

“Today I had the privilege to drive Jose Froilan Gonzalez’s car. It was the first Ferrari win in Formula One and this year it is 60 years ago that one Ferrari car won the first grand prix in Formula One. Today we won on the same circuit with the same passion, with the same group of people, working for this fantastic team.’’

Victory yesterday appeared to be a tall order for Ferrari in the early laps.

Starting the race on intermediate tyres as the result of a rain shower prior to the start, Alonso struggled to match the pace of the Red Bulls of pole-sitter Mark Webber and runaway championship leader Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso nevertheless maintained his third place on the starting grid despite pressure from the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, but that all changed when both men stopped for dry tyres.

Hamilton immediately looked quicker and passed Alonso into Copse on lap 15, but by lap 24 Alonso was back on the pace, re-passing the Briton before reeling in the Red Bulls.

After deposing Webber, Alonso took the lead on lap 28 when Vettel suffered a delayed pit stop and pulled away to win by 16.5 seconds.

The win moves Alonso up to third in the drivers’ championship, 92 points behind Vettel, and he concedes more of the same is required if he is to have any chance delivering a third world championship.

“Every race we try to treat like a final,” he said.

“Our championship hopes are very difficult because Sebastian keeps finishing all the races first and second, so the only thing we can do is try to win every race we go to and be very aggressive.’’