L

ast weekend’s Grand Prix of Europe at Valencia was without doubt the best race we have seen at the Spanish street circuit, but it shows what a scintillating season we have had, that some viewers thought it the dullest race of the year.

The race certainly wasn’t a high-adrenaline roller-coaster classic like Canada, but in Valencia’s defense, we did see some top-quality racing, not least from the two Spanish home heroes. As is so often the case, there was more about this race than initially met the eye.

While Sebastian Vettel had a flawless weekend to score his sixth win from eight races, for me it was a good race from the German, but not one he would look back to savor in years to come. In contrast Fernando Alonso, while probably disappointed with second place, arguably drove one of the best races of his career.

Off the start line, both the Ferraris rocketed ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, with Massa briefly getting the upper hand before being demoted by a superb Alonso overtaking move at Turn 2. After that Alonso was locked in a race-long battle with the second-placed Red Bull of Mark Webber, but it was Alonso’s performance in the third and final round of pit stops that proved decisive.

Heading into the 42nd lap, Red Bull brought Mark Webber in for the change from the softer Pirelli “option” tires to the harder “prime”. Alonso’s Ferrari, though, didn’t follow Webber into the pits.

The Ferrari team took a gamble that Alonso could still lap faster on his worn soft-compound tires than Webber could on the new, harder compound tires. They gave Alonso three laps to prove whether the gamble would work.

Alonso was inspired. His pace on those worn tires allowed him to make up more than his second’s deficit to Webber — and then some more. On lap 45 he made his stop and came back out of the pits with more than a second in hand over Webber, then pulled clear to split the Red Bulls at the checkered flag.

It was another drive from Alonso that transcended the Ferrari’s real performance. While Felipe Massa was admittedly delayed by a slow pit stop, he too had a strong race, but fifth place behind Webber and Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren was a realistic indicator of the Ferrari’s true pace.

However, if Alonso’s drive was good, his fellow Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari drove even better. His run from 18th on the grid to an eventual 8th place was for me, the drive of the race and without doubt the best drive of Alguersuari’s F1 career.

The Spaniard’s Toro Rosso lost vital track running in Friday’s practice with a technical problem and that clearly cost him places in qualifying. It is common knowledge that, with the talented Australian Daniel Ricciardo making his mark as a test driver, one of the two Toro Rosso drivers may lose their seat by the end of the season. One could sense the sharpening of knives.

And Alguersuari responded with the race of his life. Running a two-stop strategy to every other driver’s three, he worked his way up through the field to eighth.

Then he managed to maintain that position, while at the same time making his second set of tires last 23 laps, 10 laps longer than any other driver.

The final laps of the race saw Alguersuari hold off the Force India of Adrian Sutil. Despite the DRS drag-reducing rear wing, the KERS hybrid power boost and a series of aggressive attacks, nothing it seemed could get the Force India ahead of the Toro Rosso.

As Vijay Mallya fumed on the pit wall, Alguersuari came home ahead, to the delight of his team and a race result that likely saved his career. Who said Valencia was dull?

Steve Slater is the live race commentator for STAR Sports’ coverage of F1.