Alonso thrills crowd with stunning start

Fernando Alonso produced a sensational start to the Spanish Grand Prix to the delight of his fans around Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.

Starting from fourth on the grid in his Ferrari, Alonso swiftly moved past Lewis Hamilton to grab third before lining up the front-row Red Bulls.

On the run down to the first corner, the Spaniard then dived down the inside of Sebastian Vettel and pole man Mark Webber, sparking roars from around the track.

Vettel managed to edge past his team-mate into second, whilst the McLaren of Hamilton held fourth.

For team-mate Jenson Button, however, the Briton suffered a woeful beginning as he had dropped to 10th from fifth at the end of the first lap.

After the first three laps, Alonso’s advantage over Vettel was half a second, with Webber a further 0.7secs adrift and Hamilton 1.1secs behind.