Alonso on which race he remembers most

      Alonso is already in his 22nd season in the World Championship, and the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be his 418th race – the record for sporting longevity in Formula 1 belongs to him and, apparently, will not be rewritten for a long time, because he has no intention of ending his career.

      There have been many bright moments in the illustrious career of the two-time world champion, but which race does he himself consider the best? Many long-time fans of his talent will probably remember the 2012 European Grand Prix, in which Fernando, driving for Ferrari, took his 29th victory. And some will name the race at Imola, where Alonso beat Michael Schumacher, an important achievement and one of the reasons the Spaniard won his first title.

      However, other options are quite possible, and here is how Fernando answers that question: "It's hard to say which race I remember most. Perhaps one of the best was Valencia (in 2012), but more because of the media attention. But there were many others whose circumstances people simply don't know.

      For example, the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix. During the race I had gearbox problems. It was already half failed, the clutch was working poorly. I could shift up normally, but shifting down from the middle of the race onward was problematic.

      So I approach Turn 1, I downshift from 7th, but instead of 2nd I can only engage 5th. I take the corner, although losing some time, but on the next one the problem repeats.

      I understood that this could lead to a retirement, and I made a desperate attempt: when shifting down I blipped the throttle, which allowed me to engage the required gear. On the next braking I was blipping the throttle four times, and that allowed me to shift down four gears.

      In short, I found a solution to the problem, but it didn't go without consequences for the gearbox. I asked the team if I was doing the right thing, because the gearbox could fail in a single lap. Ferrari engineers told me, 'Keep doing what you're doing. The gearbox will hold.'

      And I did that for 30 laps: I braked while simultaneously pressing the throttle pedal every time I had to shift down. I raised the revs while synchronously operating the paddle to change gears.

      The engineers later told me they couldn't understand how I managed to find the solution so quickly, because it took me only 13 or 14 seconds. I replied that I simply can't stand losing, can't stand retiring from the race. Before stopping the car and resigning myself to not being able to score points, I will try every possible solution.

      In that race I finished either fifth or sixth and was completely unnoticed…"

      In fact, on 10 April 2011 in Sepang Alonso took 6th place, although he reached the finish more than 20 seconds after Felipe Massa, his Ferrari teammate.

      "Yet nobody remembers that race," Alonso added. "But during that race I had to expend so much energy, maintain such a level of concentration, that personally it stuck in my memory. Besides, I managed to instantly find a solution to a problem we hadn't faced before."