Fernando alonso
Alonso returns to Formula One in run out for Renault
Fernando Alonso had not been in an F1 car since a test session for McLaren in Bahrain in April 2019 and had not raced one since the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix,...
Fernando Alonso, who won his two world championship titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006, said the French team had afforded him his "fondest memories" in Formula One.
Alonso, who left Formula One at the end of 2018 after a final season with McLaren, won his championship titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006.
Alonso won his titles with Renault in 2005 and 2006 to end seven-times champion Michael Schumacher’s long reign.
The stage was shrouded in mourning after the death on Sunday of Portuguese rider Paulo Goncalves.
South African driver Giniel De Villiers won the second stage of the Dakar Rally on Monday.
Among the starters will be motorbikes, quad bikes and trucks but Alonso, who will have five-time bike champion Marc Coma navigating his Toyota, will be in the car category as he bids to become one of the greatest all-round drivers of all time.
The move has been an open secret with Fernando Alonso entering rallies in South Africa and Morocco as preparation with fellow Spaniard and former Dakar motorcycle winner Marc Coma as co-driver.
The double Formula One world champion’s No. 66 McLaren Racing Chevrolet slid into the wall on the exit of Turn 3 before skidding across the track and into the interior barrier and striking the outside barrier again.
The 2020 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia is thought to be high on his agenda after he tested the Toyota Hilux in South Africa alongside 2009 Dakar champion Giniel de Villiers.
The 37-year-old Spaniard left Formula One at the end of last season but remains close to the team as an ambassador and also as a driver competing in the Indianapolis 500 with a McLaren entry in May.
The 37-year-old added the epic US endurance event to a list of career achievements that includes 32 F1 race wins and world titles in 2005 and 2006.
After walking through a guard of honour before the start of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Alonso pulled on his helmet and delivered a dogged drive that took him to 11th in his final outing with McLaren.
The Spaniard, now 37, won both of his 2005 and 2006 titles with Renault at Interlagos and the ramshackle but atmospheric Sao Paulo circuit has given him plenty of memories over the years, if no race wins.
Fernando Alonso had tried to pass Kevin Magnussen’s Haas round the outside of the first chicane during the second phase of qualifying at Monza.
Hulkenberg missed his braking point and rammed the Spaniard, whose airborne car skimmed the halo-fitted cockpit of Leclerc's Sauber.
The Spaniard’s comments appeared to be at odds with Red Bull boss Christian Horner, who suggested after Daniel Ricciardo’s decision that Alonso was not under consideration.
Alonso, a double Monaco Grand Prix winner, won the Le Mans 24 Hours on his debut with Toyota in June this year and is ninth in the Formula One drivers’ championship standings.
The pole, in a track record time of one minute 11.212 seconds, drew a huge roar from the crowd on a damp day at Hockenheim.