Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso led from start to finish at the German Grand Prix to record his third win of the season last Sunday. Alonso was joined on the podium by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s Jenson Button in third. However, a post race penalty moved Vettel down the order with Button being promoted to second place and third going to Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen.

As the lights went out, Alonso made the most of the F2012’s great launch off the line and led away almost unchallenged, but Felipe Massa required a nose change at the end of lap 1 following a collision. Hamilton also had to bring the McLaren in with a puncture on lap 3.

On lap 4, Alonso had Vettel’s Red Bull in close formation behind him and then there was a gap of almost four seconds to third placed Schumacher in the Mercedes, and followed by Hulkenberg in the Force India, then Maldonaldo, Webber, Raikkonen, Di Resta and Perez, the Mexican making up seven places, completing the top 10.

On lap 8, Button got his McLaren ahead of Hulkenberg to take fourth. Button then passed Schumacher for third on lap 10, as Di Resta began the first run of pit stops. At the front, Alonso had a 1.3 lead over Vettel, while Massa’s early troubles saw him down in 19th place.

Hulkenberg, Webber and Rosberg all pitted on lap 12 while Maldonaldo came in from sixth on lap 13 in the Williams. Schumacher pitted on lap 14 from fourth place in the Mercedes, coming out to get the better of Hulkenberg, which also saw Raikkonen get past the Force India. Fernando ran a bit wide at a corner on lap 17 so the team brought him in immediately for his first tire change, taking on the harder Medium tires for a longer second stint.

Lap 35 and Fernando’s mirrors went from blue to silver, as although well down the order, one lap down, Hamilton, on fresher tires, got his McLaren ahead of Vettel to take station behind Alonso. Schumacher was the first of the frontrunners to make his second pit stop from fifth place on lap 36. Lap 41 and Button pitted, followed by Perez from fifth and Webber from eighth.

The next lap was a key moment as Alonso dived into pit lane with Red Bull covering the Ferrari move bringing Vettel in at the same time. But as the two men emerged from pit lane, Button was able to pull alongside the German to take second place, with the three leaders all on the Medium tires and set to go all the way to the chequered flag.

Button was now close enough to use DRS and with 20 laps remaining, the McLaren was effectively riding on the Ferrari’s rear wing.

While Vettel drifted back from the leading two, Button was only 0.6 behind Fernando with 10 laps remaining, but after dealing with some backmarkers, Fernando managed the gap, extending it enough to look comfortable for the final laps.

However Vettel had put together a late charge and on the penultimate lap, he got past the McLaren, using rather more than just the race track to do so to take second place.

However, after the race, the Stewards penalized Vettel with a 20-second penalty as they deemed his move on Button had contravened the rules.

Red Bull still heads the Constructors’ classification, with the Scuderia second, slightly closer to the leaders and pulling further away from McLaren in third.

As for Alonso, he now has 154 points at the top of the Drivers’ classification, 34 more than Mark Webber who came home in eighth place.