WILLIAMS' LAST VICTORY

The 2012 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula 1 motor race that was held on 13 May 2012 at the Circuit de  Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. It was the fifth round of the 2012 season and the twenty-second time the Spanish Grand Prix been held at the circuit. Lewis Hamilton initially qualified on pole, but he was excluded from the results for a technical infringement, and Williams' Pastor Maldonado inherited pole. Maldonado went on to win the race, his team's first victory since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix and the first victory by a Venezuelan F1 driver. Fernado Alonso finished second, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in third.
Despite all but the top seven drivers having the option of starting on either compound tyre, all of the grid choose to start on the faster but higher degrading yellow banded soft 'option' tyre. As the five red lights went out Fernado Alonso got a great start as the Williams of Pastor Maldonado attempted to push him to the dirty side of the track. Maldonado could not match the Ferrari's start and aggressiveness and was beaten to the first turn by Alonso who led his home Grand Prix from the first turn. Finn Kimi Raikkonen led Lotus teammate Romain Grosjean while 5th to the first turn was Sauber's Sergio Perez. The two Mercedes followed Pérez with Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull and Jenson Button's McLaren rounding out the top 8. Red Bull teammate Mark Webber had another poor start from the grid, leaving him in 15th by turn 1.
The two Red Bull drivers, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, made very early pit stops on laps 7 and 8 respectively, switching to the harder tyres. After lap 9 the Red Bull and Sauber teams were the only cars to have pitted, all choosing hard compound tyres. Sauber was thought to pit Kamui Kobayashi in order to cover the early-stopping Red Bulls. At this stage the Hamilton was charging his way through the field while the three at the front (Alonso, Maldonado, and Räikkönen) were building a twelve-second gap to 4th-placed Grosjean.
Shortly afterwards, the majority of the other drivers made their first scheduled pit stop, with Lotus, Mercedes and Force India the only front running teams to opt for the soft compound tyre again. On lap 13, Michael Schumacher hit Bruno Senna from behind after misjudging his braking, forcing both of them out of the race. Hamilton, who was using a two-stop strategy, was running as high as 4th place when he finally pitted on lap 15.
The next round of pit stops occurred between laps 23 and 28. Come lap 25, Maldonado's stop proved to be faster, and he 'undercut' Alonso from the pits to emerge ahead, taking the lead when Räikkönen pitted. Alonso pitted on lap 27 and prior to the pit stop was shown waving his hand in disgust at Charles Pic for not allowing the faster Ferrari to pass the lapped Marussia. 
Soon after, Sebastian Vettel and Felipe Massa were both handed drive through penalties for failing to slow for a yellow flag warning.
After the Lotus cars switched back from soft to hard tyres, their pace was visibly more competitive with the leaders and it became clear a strategic error had occurred. Lap 34 saw a daring move from the Japanese driver Kobayashi on 2009 world champion Button where he out braked Button on the inside of turn 5 and gently nudged him further out of his way.
At this stage of the race, Maldonado, Alonso or Räikkönen looked to be the only drivers with a realistic chance of winning the Grand Prix.
Hamilton made his second and final pit stop from 7th place on lap 36, rejoining the race in 14th place.
At the head of the field, Alonso was making steady inroads into Maldonado's lead, cutting it to 6 seconds by lap 38. On Maldonado's final pit stop, a slight delay occurred when there was trouble with the left rear wheel. This delay cost him 2-3 valuable seconds and, it was thought at the time, perhaps the race.
After his final pit stop, Räikkönen was 22.809 seconds down on the leader but fresher tyres meant that he would have a speed advantage for the last 16 laps. Alonso eventually caught the back of Maldonado but did not have the ability to overtake him. Maldonado was clear on his focus of tyre preservation. The gap hovered around one second for some time until Alonso started dropping off.
After his final pit stop, Räikkönen was 22.809 seconds down on the leader but fresher tyres meant that he would have a speed advantage for the last 16 laps.
It appeared that the more experienced Alonso would eventually regain the lead, but Maldonado withstood the pressure and eventually Alonso decided to settle for second, rather than risk losing any more traction on his tyres. Räikkönen's late surge proved insufficient to take second place. The win for Maldonado was his first in Formula One and eclipsed his previous best result - 8th in China. In fact it was only his third ever points scoring finish in 24 races. It was also Willimas best result since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Räikkönen's teammate Romain Grosjean finished 4th, driving a steady race after the first lap incident with Pérez. Kamui Kobayashi and Sebastian Vettel overtook Nico Rosberg late in the race for 5th and 6th places respectively. Lewis Hamilton finished a meritorious 8th after starting from the back of the grid, with Jenson Button and Nico Hülkenberg (who had kept Mark Webber (11th) behind from lap 22 until the end) taking the final points.