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Fernando Alonso has been a part of the sport for more than two decades now. The Spanish driver made his debut in 2001 with Minardi and has driven arguably some of the best and the worst cars in F1 history.
He became the youngest world champion of his time in 2005, a record that was broken by Lewis Hamilton in 2008. Alonso was also the last man to beat Michael Schumacher in a title fight in 2006 when he won his second championship. While we can argue that Alonso hasn't had the best of cars for most of his career, he's still a two-time world champion and has 32 wins to his name.
Throughout Alonso's career, there have been races where he has overachieved. In quite a few of them, he has gone ahead and won as well.
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In this feature, we will take a look at some of the races that Alonso should not have won but ended up winning.
Fernando Alonso's wins in a slower car
#1 2005 F1 San Marino GP
It's not often that one arguably has the third-fastest car on the grid and even then, they end up winning the race. This was what Fernando Alonso achieved in a race that was probably one of the best examples of defensive driving at the time.
Renault was arguably the third-fastest car in the race behind the McLaren in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher's Ferrari. With Raikkonen retiring early from the race after building a commanding lead, Alonso made sure that he managed the pace until Schumacher made his way through the field.
There were times when Schumacher was multiple seconds quicker than Alonso but once he came up to the back of the Spaniard, the legendary driver could not find a way through.
In what was a precise strategy of defending by placing the car in the right place at the right time, Alonso held off Schumacher to win the race in Imola.
#2 2008 F1 Japanese GP
The 2008 F1 season was the one where the championship contenders arguably made far too many mistakes and didn't perform at the highest of levels.
This was one of the reasons why there were a few surprise results sprinkled throughout the season. One of them was the race in Japan where Lewis Hamilton completely fumbled at the start of the race, went straight on, and compromised the race for multiple drivers.
What it also did was allow other drivers like Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica to fight for the win. In what was a very close battle between the Spaniard and the Polish driver, it was Alonso who came out on top and got the win.
#3 2010 F1 Korean GP
The 2010 F1 Korean GP is a perfect example of a race where Fernando Alonso made sure that he was at the right place at the right time.
This has been the theme of the Spaniard's career as even if he isn't driving the best car, he makes sure that he'll get the car as high up the order as possible. And if someone up front makes a mistake or something goes wrong, Alonso can pick up the pieces. This was precisely what he did in Korea in 2010.
The inaugural race had torrential rain and battling through all of it, going into the final few laps, we had Sebastian Vettel heading the charts followed by Alonso.
It became obvious during the race that the Ferrari just didn't have the pace of the Red Bull as Alonso had settled himself in P2. However, with only a few laps left, Vettel's Renault engine gave up on him causing immediate retirement.
With the German out of the race, Alonso inherited the lead and picked up what was an unlikely win at the time.
#4 2012 F1 Malaysian GP
The 2012 F1 Malaysian GP is arguably one of the best wet-weather drivers in the history of the sport. It was a drive in a car that didn't belong at the front of the grid and it involved precise decision-making and impressive racecraft from start to finish.
When other contenders were tripping over each other, Fernando Alonso, cool as a cucumber, made the right calls. Once he hit the front he made sure that he managed his pace and was never usurped.
#5 2012 F1 European GP
There are a few races where one just wonders what happened. How did that driver end up in that position? This was Fernando Alonso in Valencia in 2012. The Ferrari driver was eliminated in Q2 and did not even start the race in the top 10.
The race saw Alonso methodically make his way through the field and once he hit the front, there was no stopping him. The emotions ran high on this one as Alonso could not control his tears on the podium afterward.
