One hundred podiums for Alonso: these were his most memorable podiums!

Fernando Alonso celebrated a (belated) party in recent days. In Saudi Arabia, he took his 100th podium. We have picked out some of Alonso's greatest podiums from his long, illustrious and ongoing career!

Malaysia 2003

Who could have predicted to see Alonso on the podium by the end of March in 2003? In Malaysia, a very young Fernando Alonso captured his very first podium. In any case, the omens were positive then at the start of spring. The driver had already put his Renault on pole during qualifying, just ahead of his teammate Jarno Trulli.

Of course, that pole position came partly from the fact that Alonso had chosen to qualify with less fuel than the competition had done. Back then, it was possible to refuel during the race. In any case, Alonso had to go to the pits early during the Grand Prix, which cost him a lot of time. Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello passed the Spaniard, incidentally putting him at a hefty disadvantage, but Alonso did make it to the podium.

Hungary 2003

After his first podium finish, it was not long before Fernando Alonso could call himself a Grand Prix winner. In the same 2003 season in Hungary, he was fastest in qualifying and this time he was able to maintain that advantage. During the race, Alonso even managed to put Michael Schumacher - at the time the big man in Formula 1 - a lap behind.

At the circuit near Budapest, Alonso crowned himself the youngest winner ever in Formula 1. He was only 22 years old. A few seasons later, Sebastian Vettel snatched the age record from Alonso, before in 2016 Max Verstappen did the same to the German. That win in Hungary, incidentally, marked the first of 32 victories in Formula 1. The last (so far) was in his native Spain in 2013.

Brazil 2005

In 2005, an exciting battle for the World Championship title unfolded between Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso. Two races before the end, both still had a chance to win the most important silverware in motorsport, but with his third-place finish in Brazil, the Spaniard put an end to all suspense.

This fact makes this race among the list of Alonso's most memorable podium finishes, because in the Grand Prix itself, he hardly got around to it. Juan-Pablo Montoya won by a large margin, ahead of his teammate Raikkonen. Alonso eventually had to concede almost 25 seconds to the winner of the day, but who cared? At 24 years and 58 days, he was (at the time) the youngest ever Formula 1 World Champion.

Singapore 2008

A Grand Prix that is pretty much in every Formula One fan's memory. A bit like Abu Dhabi 2021, with similar drama and a long-lasting aftermath. Fernando Alonso won that race, having started from 15th position. That the Spaniard was able to get to the front was mainly due to early pit stops and a safety car after a crash by Nelson Piquet Jr.

Afterwards, it was revealed that Piquet had deliberately parked his Renault in the wall. One of Formula 1's biggest scandals led to team boss Flavio Briatore being suspended for life, while technical man Pat Symonds (currently working for the FIA) was banned from racing for five years. After an appeal, these punishments were reversed, but what remains: Singapore 2008 is Alonso's most bizarre podium of his career.

Qatar 2021

Fernando Alonso is not only immensely fast on the track, he is also a genius at picking the wrong team at the wrong time. Given his qualities, it is small wonder that the counter 'only' stands at 100 podiums. After his third-place finish in Hungary in 2014 on behalf of Ferrari, Alonso went through a dry spell for years, mainly because he decided to move to McLaren-Honda for 2015 and beyond. To put it mildly, that did not turn out to be a success.

Alonso - after several years away from Formula 1 - had to wait until November 2021 before he could walk onto another F1 podium. In Qatar, he finished third with Alpine - another wrong choice in hindsight - behind winner Lewis Hamilton and chaser Max Verstappen. A minute Alonso had to concede to his old rival Hamilton. The joy was logically huge for both the French team and Alonso. Podium 98 was in, and more would follow - as it now turns out.