• Feature Millions, signings and team: How did Aston Martin create Alonso's 'miracle' car?

How did he hold on? On the podium in Jeddah jumps a euphoric man, Fernando Alonso, third after Checo Pérez and Max Verstappen, the second podium of the year, and, in his joy, a lot of memories. The last time he chained two podiums was in September 2013. Almost 10 years ago! What did he do to endure that discredit at Ferrari, where he was not attended. Why he didn't give up in the middle of that war between McLaren and Honda. How he was able to return after three seasons out and on the verge of turning 40. The desert was too cruel, but after crossing it there is Alonso, jumping again on the podium.

There have been few stories in sport like his, perhaps none. I already had the race, I already had the track record, I already had the money, only the love of driving explains that Alonso endured a decade of disappointments until he had a car like the current Aston Martin again, the miracle car, the car that yesterday allowed the Spaniard to endure George Russell and take another third place. In Bahrain, where he was already third, Alonso did not believe it: something has to fail, it cannot be so good, it must be the circuit. In Arabia on Sunday he discovered that he has before him the season he had been waiting for so long.

His place this year will be the podium, no doubt. If everything goes as it should, he will always be behind the Red Bulls, fighting for third place, a day with the Ferraris, as happened in Bahrain and a day with the Mercedes, as happened this Sunday. But what will happen when Verstappen and Perez fail? The horizon is bright. This Sunday at the complicated circuit of Saudi Arabia, Alonso had a quiet race, with one foot always on the podium, and even allowed himself a silly mistake, a rookie error. On his first visit to the front row of the grid since last year in Canada, he sat too far to the left, outside the designated zone. He didn't advance centimeters or get out earlier, he just placed himself wrong. And the ruling cost him five seconds of penalty.

He wouldn't know that he would have to fulfill them when he left and did it perfectly. At the first corner, he passed Perez, the pole owner, and held him behind for three laps. Alonso, in the lead. Alonso leading a race. Alonso in a situation unthinkable a few months ago. Could the whole test have been kept there? Impossible. Perez's Red Bull is a car of the future and overtook the Spaniard as soon as DRS acceleration was activated, but he took advantage of it. Like a rider who is overtaken by the yellow jersey and hooks on his back, Alonso lived in the slipstream of Perez for eight laps and that tactic overturned his penalty. When on lap 18 the Safety Car appeared and all the drivers went to the garage, the Aston Martin leader already had enough margin to return ahead of his pursuer, Russell.


According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more

  • Fernando Alonso
  • Ferrari