Watch: Fernando Alonso stuns his home crowd with victory for Ferrari in Valencia | 2012 European GP. Alonso stunned his home crowd.

Fernando Alonso, starting 11th on the grid, stuns his home crowd with victory for Scuderia Ferrari on the Valencia street circuit at the 2012 European Grand Prix

On 24th June 2012, the European Grand Prix was held on a track set out around the port of Valencia in Spain. In qualifying, things went very badly for Scuderia Ferrari: both the F2012s failed to make it through to the final part of the session, with Fernando Alonso having to start down in eleventh, with Felipe Massa back in thirteenth.

At the start, the podium seemed like an unreachable dream, especially as there weren’t many passing opportunities at this track. However, Fernando Alonso didn’t lose heart and was extremely aggressive: by the end of the opening lap he was eighth, on lap 13 sixth, lap 22 fourth and lap 28 third, behind Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) and Romain Grosjean (Lotus.)

The Safety Car was called out because of debris on track which closed everyone up, although overtaking still seemed unlikely. However, it seemed the gods were with Alonso after that incredible climb up the order. The two cars ahead of him stopped with the same problem linked to the alternator and Fernando Alonso plucked a victory from what had been one of the worst Saturday’s of his career.

Fernando Alonso, starting 11th on the grid, therefore stunned his home crowd with victory on the Valencia street circuit:

—- see video above —