• European Grand Prix

'Best victory' for emotional Alonso

Fernando Alonso became the first winner of two grands prix this season © Press Association

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• Report:
• Alonso wins remarkable European Grand Prix
  

• Race:
• European Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Fernando Alonso described his victory in the European Grand Prix as "probably the best victory I've ever felt in terms of emotions".

Having only managed to qualify in 11th place on the grid on Saturday, Alonso's chances of a win looked very slim ahead of the race. However, a thrilling grand prix developed with a safety car period bunching up the pack and Sebastian Vettel retiring when Alonso was lying second before his closest challenger Romain Grosjean also dropped out. Having taken his second victory of the season, Alonso admitting he was overcome with the emotion of winning in front of his home fans.

"It's difficult to express in words what the feeling is at the moment," Alonso said. "Winning a home grand prix is something unique, a very special feeling. I had the opportunity in Barcelona 2006 with Renault, and I still remember that day perfectly. Now did the same thing here in Valencia but now with this special team - Ferrari, with all the grandstands full of red colour, full of the Spanish flags, and here now with the Euro football championships also there's a lot of Spanish atmosphere inside all of us. I'm feeling very proud to be a Spanish sportsman at the moment and winning this race in Spain is probably the best victory I've ever felt in terms of emotions - nothing ever compares to this one."

Alonso added that he had not allowed the team to be too downbeat after qualifying because of the open nature of the 2012 season.

"It's unpredictable results, but it's still a sport. Sport is about that, sport is about up and downs; yesterday we had a tough moment, we were sad about not being in Q3 but you can never give up because anything can happen in sport in general. Maybe more in Formula One, which is something that has many factors inside. There are the cars, there are the brakes, engines, anything can have a failure in the race."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.