The illustrious career of two-time Formula 1 champion, Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso is a Spanish Formula 1 racing driver who was born on July 29, 1981.
Alonso was involved into racing from an early age. He used to participate in karting competitions with the support of his father.
Soon Alonso started to do so well that he was attracting sponsorships. He won four Spanish Championships in the junior category and also claimed the Junior World Cup in 1996.
It was the year 1999 when Alonso finally got to race. He was signed by Campos to race in the Spanish Euro Open MoviStar by Nissan series. It was only his second race in which he recorded his first win and took the championship by one point against Manuel
Giao and in the process setting up the fastest lap at the last race of the season.
In the year 2000, Alonso entered Formula 3000, a stepping-stone to enter the Formula 1 world. In the final two rounds of the race, Alonso took second place and a victory to earn him the fourth position overall.
2001 saw Alonso enter Formula 1 making his debut with Minardi at the Australian Grand Prix. Alonso did not have much success during his debut season but in 2002, Alonso became the test driver for Renault replacing Jenson Button. The decision was criticised
but Director Mike Gascoyne insisted that he made the right decision.
Alonso had a good year in 2006. He won the first race of the season in Bahrain and then got pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix. He then went on to increase his streak to four wins by claiming victories in Britain and Canada.
Alonso joined the Ferrari team in 2009. At the Australian Grand Prix of the same year, he qualified behind Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber and finished fourth only seconds behind teammate Felipe Massa.
Alonso had a crash in Monaco in the practice run and could not take part in the qualifying due to that. The Canadian Grand Prix saw Alonso qualify fourth and finished third getting his second podium after a race-long battle with the McLarens and Red Bulls.
The battle continued in Valencia, where he secured fourth on the grid in qualifying, the race saw Mark Webber’s car crashing which gave Lewis Hamilton significant advantage, and created a lot of controversy. Alonso along with Ferrari was very critical of
FIA’s stewarding of the event.
Alonso finished in the third place in the Hungarian Grand Prix, and claimed the pole position at the Italian Grand Prix and went on to record a win after several years.
Alonso managed to perform consistently during the following seasons, managing to cope up with some tough crashes and mechanical failures. Recently in the 2011 season, Alonso started with a fourth place in Australia behind the 2011 season’s championship leader
driver Sebastian Vettel.
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