Alonso happy to return: 'It was nice to feel again the adrenaline'

After a two-year absence, Fernando Alonso officially returned to the grid of a Formula 1 race on Sunday. The Spaniard is happy to be back, but admits he is not feeling 'one hundred percent' yet.

The long awaited return of Alonso became reality on Sunday. In his sky-blue Alpine A521 he started from ninth place. Unfortunately for the Spaniard he had to retire after 32 laps with a problem that later on turned out to be caused by a sandwich bag.

Not quite fit, but still fought

"It was nice to feel again the adrenaline at the starting grid, the national anthem, all these procedures were very emotional today for me", Alonso is quoted by MotorsportWeek.com. The two-time champion says he wasn't feeling 100 percent yet, but he was happy with the battles he had on the track.

"I need to find more pace from myself, I need to find more confidence, I need to extract more from the car, from the brakes, execute the start better", said Alonso. The Spaniard knows he is not yet at his old level and wants to do everything possible to get back to that level in the coming races.