Alonso in pole position after second win of the season

From 11th on the grid Alonso took the chequered flag for the 19th time in his career, and subsequently a Spanish flag from a marshal he waved with tears in his eyes on his parade lap.

When Alonso pulled his Ferrari over in front of a grandstand due to some late technical issue, he stood on its front and took the acclaim of the thousands of fans.

It was the same when he eventually stood on the podium several minutes later as he was mobbed by many en route, including team principal Stefano Domenicali.

It was Alonso’s second win on home soil, his first was in 2006 in the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, but it was clear this one meant far more to him given the current economic crisis gripping his country at present.

To add to Alonso’s euphoria, his two closest title rivals – Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel – both failed to finish when both should have scored big points. Vettel, in particular, was cruising to victory in his Red Bull when a safety car turned the race on its head.

The reigning world champion was in a world of his own, sailing off to what appeared to be a third consecutive victory at this circuit. But one bump of the wheels involving Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen and Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne on lap 28 changed all that, the latter collecting a 10-place grid penalty for the next race at Silverstone, and a 25,000 euro fine.

It resulted in a front-left puncture for Kovalainen and a rear-right for Vergne, the latter making a total hash of his return to the pits, leaving debris all over the track which the marshals were forced to scrape up. Once the safety car departed Vettel suffered an alternator failure one-and-a-half laps later, his first mechanical retirement for 29 races.

That left Alonso ahead of a chasing Romain Grosjean in his Lotus, only for the Frenchman to also suffer an alternator issue, which in turn promoted Hamilton to second.

But with no grip in his tyres late on, Hamilton was first passed by Kimi Raikkonen for the runner-up spot at the end of lap 55 of the 57.

Soon after, on the penultimate lap, in dicing with the Williams of Pastor Maldonado, the Venezuelan went off track, rejoining by running into Hamilton and punting him into a wall.

Maldonado was handed a retrospective drive-through penalty which cost him his 10th place, a decision unlikely to enamour Hamilton.

Despite a late stewards’ investigation into Michael Schumacher using his DRS under waved yellow flags, no action was taken, allowing him to retain third place, his first podium since he stepped out of retirement two and a half years ago.

In the championship, Alonso now has a 20-point lead over Mark Webber in his Red Bull who was fourth after starting 19th.