Desea España viva! Alonso wins in Spain!

Fernando Alonso sent a capacity crowd of 131,000 adoring fans into a frenzy.

Renault's ace driver did that by becoming the first Spaniard ever to win his home grand prix at Barcelona on Sunday.

The 24-year-old simply annihilated the opposition, including arch-rival Michael Schumacher who had begun to chip away at his world championship lead with wins at Imola and the Nurburgring.

After taking pole with an exquisite qualifying lap on Saturday, Alonso controlled the race from start to finish by the simple expedient of lapping 0.5s per lap faster than anybody else for most of the afternoon.

That superior pace put paid to Ferrari's hopes that its decision to opt for a heavier fuel load than Renault would pave the way for Schumacher to demote Alonso through the pit stop exchanges a la Nurburgring.

Schumacher did indeed pit six laps later than Alonso, putting his third-place qualifying effort, just 0.3s adrift of Alonso, into perspective. But by then he was too far behind to offer any meaningful challenge; Alonso had the race sewn up.

Alonso set a relentless pace throughout the race's middle stint and had 11.2s in hand when he pitted for the second time on lap 40. That was more than enough to negate the advantage of Schumacher's extra low-fuel laps, and when Alonso then virtually matched the Ferrari's pace with his fuel-heavy R26, it was all over bar the shouting.

Fernando Alonso's third win of the season strengthens his grip on the world championship standings, giving him a 15-point margin over Schumacher.

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