Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport and, therefore, all the drivers in the world work to be leading a race (and win it). Only a few can make it, but the vast majority stick with it, making it very difficult to appear at the top of the leaderboard for even one lap.
In all of history, only two Spaniards have commanded a grand prix in this category, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, and at the 2022 season event in Canada they managed to repeat a feat that had only happened once in the 72 years of the Great Circus .
When the Ferrari driver was first and the Alpine driver was in second position, they emulated what happened at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix, when Alonso himself and Pedro Martínez de la Rosa led the race, becoming the first Spaniards to be in 1st and 2nd place in Formula 1.
That August 6, more than a decade and a half ago, the Spaniard and the Catalan led the race on lap 26 , just when Kimi Raikkonen, Pedro’s McLaren teammate, suffered an accident with a Vitantonio Liuzzi Toro Rosso. Despite the fact that it was only during one lap, both Spanish drivers achieved what was unthinkable for a country that did not have a great motoring tradition.
In the summer race at the Hungaroring, rain made an appearance from the start, and Alonso put in one of his best performances in Formula 1, but the famous nut on lap 51 doomed all his chances, as he went into the wall when he was on his way to his 15th victory in the top flight. Luck was not on his side for the man from Oviedo, but it was for de la Rosa, who stood on the only podium of his entire life, just behind Jenson Button, after a good duel against Michael Schumacher.
Returning to the present, the fate of the 2022 Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix race turned out to have mixed fortunes for the Spanish protagonists. Carlos Sainz managed to repeat what Pedro de la Rosa did by finishing second, just behind Max Verstappen, just one second behind.
However, Fernando Alonso crossed the finish line in seventh position, but a move that the stewards saw as a breach of article 2 b) of chapter IV of Appendix L of the International Sporting Regulations (moving to both sides on the straight to defend position), caused him to fall to ninth place due to a five-second penalty. In addition, the man from Oviedo accumulated one more point on his license, so he should pay attention if he does not want to miss out on a grand prize if he reaches 12, although he still has 6 points left for it.
