New Delhi: Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso on Sunday became the first Formula1 driver to complete 400 Grand Prix appearances during the Mexico City Grand Prix held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The milestone comes after the Spanish driver made his debut as a teenager in 2001.
In his landmark race, the 43-year-old Alonso retired after 17 laps because of overheating brakes. His compatriot Carlos Sainz with Ferrari won the Mexico City Grand Prix with a timing of 1:40:55.800s. Defending champion Lando Norris finished second for McLaren while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc came third.
Fernando Alonso retires from the #MexicoGP due to a suspected brake cooling issue. pic.twitter.com/xywjsDNXbn
— Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) October 27, 2024
Ahead of the race, Alonso reacted to his elusive feat after competing for more than two decades.
Ceramic helmet was gifted to Fernando Alonso for his 400th F1 start pic.twitter.com/DoyiCHBE04
— Aston Martin F1 updates (@startonpole) October 27, 2024
2003 Hungarian Grand Prix
This was the first F1 win for a 22-year-old Alonso. He raced for Renault at that point and was ahead of everyone after the 12th lap, overtaking then McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen. Alonso went past the chequered flag 16.768s clear after the Finnish Raikkon was struck behind Mark Webber of Jaguar, and the shortage of fuel only added to the young Spaniard’s advantage.
2005 San Marino Grand Prix
This race is considered by one of the best fights in his F1 journey by the current Aston Martin driver. He was involved in a stiff competition with Germany’s Michael Schumacher who was riding for Ferrari then. With his blue-and-yellow Renault R25, Alonso was, by leaps and bounds ahead of his rivals.
Schumacher, who started 13th in that race, made giant strides with the assistance of the Bridgestone rubber, which suffered minimal degredation at that point. Despite attempts from the German to apply pressure, an unperturbed Alonso went with his business with composure on his side and drove rapidly in the last 13 laps to secure the win.
2012 European Grand Prix
Alonso was proud of his home soil win at the 2012 European Grand Prix in Valencia, which he holds high as the most memorable achievements in his F1 career. He started the race from the 11th on the grid and went through some stupendous series of passes on the likes of Schumacher and Webber. He was in the lead once Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull retired and then took the pole position at the end to celebrate before his home fans.
2011 British Grand Prix
There were very less chances for Alonso to win a Grand Prix in the calendar year of 2011. The banned rule of off-throttle blowing of the diffuser to boost downforce at the Silverstone helped him to his advantage leading Red Bull and McLaren to struggle.
Though the Red Bull duo of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were in the lead in the initial phase on a damp track, Alonso relied on slow pitstops to overtake the Red Bull pair and Lewis Hamilton and was past the finishing line, winning by 16.5s ahead of Vettel.
2013 Spanish Grand Prix
Alonso mastered his skills of speed and incisiveness at the Circuit de Catalunya, which was a challenging track known for its powerful pitstops. He won from the fifth on the grid, taking over Hamilton outside of Turn 3 in the opening lap to be in the third place before pipping Vettel at the first round of pitstops. The last hurdle for the Spaniard was Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes, which he surpassed in an blink of an eye to win the race. It is understood to be a four-stop race by many, as mentioned by the official website of Formula1.
(With inputs from AFP and reference from Formula1 official website)
