In honour of 35 birthday that Fernando Alonso celebrated yesterday (29th July) lets remember the most memorable moments of his Formula 1 career. Started in 2001 Alonso managed to end the five year domination of Michael Schumacher and create the name that for sure classified him in one of the legends of the sport.
By now Fernando won two world titles, wins in 30 races and scored 22 pole positions.
2001. FORMULA 1 DEBUT - MINARDI
Fernando Alonso debuted in Formula1 in Australian Grand Prix in 2001 driving Minardi. Even though he finished the season with zero points, his notable performances definitely influenced the further course of his career. He became test driver in 2002 for Renault, and next year he earned the seat in Formula1 for same team, together with Jarno Trulli as a teammate.
Fernando achieved his first victory driving Renault at Hungarian Grand Prix, being then the youngest driver to win Formula1 race.
2005. FIRST WORLD TITLE
After finishing the Brasilian GP on the third position, Fernando won his first world championship title, leaving behind on the table Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher. He won 7 remarkable races in that season which contributed to win the championship
2006. SECOND WORLD TITLE
Fernando started 2006 campaign with 6 victories from first 9 races and that definitely was huge impact to the rest of the season, which was marked with rivalry with Michael Schumacher who also won 7 races. Winning the second world title,h e became the youngest ever double champion.
2007. MOVE TO McLAREN AND EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX
Fernando moved in 2007 to McLaren together with rookie Lewis Hamilton as his teammate. First victory for new team was at Malaysian GP, but very memorable race was at Nürburgring, where he won in a race that was red flagged and restarted due to weather conditions.
2008. RETURN TO RENAULT AND SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX
After unsuccessful season and failing to win world championship at McLaren, Fernando returned to Renault, who was not nothing alike the team before. But anyway he won two race in Japan and Singapore after he started from 15th on the grid.
2010. START OF FERRARI ERA AND BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
Fernando joined Ferrari at the end of 2009, and straight on his debut won the race in Bahrain, becoming the fifth driver to win for Ferrari on his debut.
During the 2010 season he was face to face for championship title with Sebastian Vettel, but mistake at the last race at Abu Dhabi cost him his third title, only by one point.
2011. BRITISH GRAND PRIX
British GP was the first Ferrari victory of the season, and at the same time the only one Fernando achieved in 2011, after a mistake from the Red Bull mechanics in a pit stop for Vettel, which gave Alonso the lead, which he maintained until the end of the race.
The race was followed by ban of blown diffuser systems, which was perceived to give Ferrari an advantage over its rivals.
2012. EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX
His ability to compensate the low grid position became visible at Valencia for European GP, where starting 11th, Fernando won, after Hamilton and Vettel both retired from the race.
During the 2012, Fernando maintained to win the another two races in Malaysia and Germany. But that was not enough to wn the title, losing again from Vettel, now only for 3 points behind, after finishing second in last race of the season.
2014. HUNGARIAN GP
The best result Fernando achieved in 2014 was the victory in Hungary after passing Ricciardo couple laps until the end. Also that year he only scored one podium and that was in China finishing third.
2015. RETURN TO McLAREN
The new McLaren era did not started that great for Fernando after crash he had during pre season test, which forced him to skip the first race of the season in Australia.In 2015 he managed to score only 11 points after 10th place on British GP and 5th place he managed to take at Hungary GP.
2016. RUSSIAN AND MONACO GRAND PRIX
Altough that the 2016 season started with heavy crash, that forced Fernando not to participate in first two race, he managed to improve bad impression from 2015. First points he scored at Russia GP, finishing 6th and also continued to score points finishing 5th in Monaco GP.
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