Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso cruised to victory in the Spanish Grand Prix, and sending the home crowd into raptures at the Circuit De Catalunya.
Alonso drove an impeccable race, starting brilliantly before some good strategy and flawless driving from the Spaniard allowed Ferrari to pull off a much-needed win over 66 laps in Barcelona.
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen keeps showing his class by finishing second - nine second behind Alonso, while Ferrari's Felipe Massa took the final podium place.
"It's very special winning at home," Alonso said. "It doesn't matter how many times you can do it, how many you repeat it, it's always like starting from zero and you have again very emotional last laps, very long last laps because you want to finish obviously as soon as possible.
"Extremely happy for the team to have both cars on the podium after a difficult qualifying that maybe we were not too fast yesterday.
"But we knew we had the pace on the long runs and we wanted to have some clear air to exploit this potential in the car. We did it. Everything worked perfect.
"Happy for the team, for the fans and hopefully this is not a one-off."
Raikkonen was disappointed to not pick up a victory in Barcelona.
"Everybody wants to win it, but sometimes you have a bad day," he told reporters. "You try to minimise those and make the most out of them and give yourself a chance to be up there and fight for wins.
"I think if you can do that often it will give a good chance in the end to fight for the championship. It's only a five race-old season, so there's an awful lot to be raced.
"We'll see what happens. We'll try to do well and see where we are in the end."
Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull kept his lead in the drivers' standings with a fourth-place finish - just ahead of teammate Mark Webber -- but his lead at the top has been cut down to four points. Vettel has 89 points after five races in the season, with Raikkonen on 85 points.
Alonso is third on 72 points, with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton well behind in fourth on 50 points. Hamilton did not have a great time of it, as Mercedes' race pace continued to disappoint with the former McLaren man finishing just 12th, despite starting from second place in the grid.
Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg, who started the race on pole, could only manage sixth.
"A difficult afternoon today and going backwards is never fun," Hamilton said. "We switched to a four-stop strategy during the race but I suffered with a lack of grip and balance throughout and we were never really able to get the tyres working.
"I know that everyone at the team is working so hard and we need to keep positive. I'm sure we will figure the problem out and we've got to keep pushing together to close the gap. I will be doing my best to help and encourage the guys."
