Updated

It turned out Fernando Alonso was right to tell his local fans that he had little chance to repeat as winner at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Alonso started Sunday's race from seventh and only moved up one spot through 66 laps, and that at the expense of struggling Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Alonso had earned a promising third-place finish at the previous China GP just before Marco Mattiacci arrived to replace team boss Stefano Domenicali following his resignation.

But as Alonso had warned, he finished almost 1 ½ minutes behind race winner Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit.

Alonso says "I knew right from the start that it would be difficult."

The once proud Italian team has now gone longer than a year without winning a grand prix.