Fernando Alonso wins Spanish GP
Fernando Alonso wins Spanish GP
Fernando Alonso won the Spanish Grand Prix in front of a sell-out 115,000 fans in Barcelona. Michael Schumacher came second.

Barcelona: Fernando Alonso became the first Spaniard to win the Spanish Grand Prix, winning Sunday's Formula One race in front of the King Juan Carlos and more than 115,000 fans.

Michael Schumacher was second, followed by Giancarlo Fisichella in third and Felipe Massa in fourth.

It was Alonso's 11th career victory and third this season after finishing second to Schumacher in the last two races.

Alonso swerved down the final straightaway in celebration and waved both arms to the crowd.

"Thank you to everyone," Alonso said to his team over the on-board radio.

When he stopped, the Spaniard jumped on his car and did a dance.

Competing in his native Spain for the first time as Formula One's defending champion, Alonso took the lead on the first turn and started pulling away from Renault teammate Fisichella by clocking the fastest laps each time until the eighth lap.

By that time he had a 5.8-second lead over Fisichella with Schumacher and Massa trailing. It was the two Renaults followed by two Ferraris.

Kimi Raikkonen, who won last year's race, was in fifth, where he later finished.

By 15 laps, the lead had increased to 9.4 seconds. The Renault-Ferrari foursome was pulling away from the rest of the field as Raikkonen fell 25 seconds behind in fifth.

The Renaults went in for fuel on the 17th and 18th laps, and Schumacher went in for fuel and tires at the end of lap 23 and came out ahead of Fisichella.

That was important for Schumacher, but not enough to dent Alonso's lead.

Alonso was back in first by lap 24 but only 10 seconds ahead of Schumacher. Fisichella moved into third, followed by Massa.

The second round of pit stops began on lap 40 with Alonso leading Schumacher by 13.4 seconds.

Schumacher stayed out six laps longer but the lead was still 12 seconds on lap 47 when both had enough fuel to last until the end of the race.

The Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were sixth and seventh, with Nick Heidfeld of BMW-Sauber in eighth.

Alonso leads the drivers' standings after five races with 54 points, followed by Schumacher with 39.

Juan Pablo Montoya of McLaren-Mercedes had a short race. He started 12th, failed to make up distance, and went out after 18 laps when he spun into the grass and couldn't get enough traction on his wheels to rejoin the race.

The next race is the Monaco Grand Prix on May 28.

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