Fernando Alonso narrowly missed it

The season of Fernando Alonso will have been full of twists and turns. After a good start to the season, the Spaniard's results have deteriorated significantly. But the pilot Ferrari had a remarkable end to the season since he managed to climb back to first place in the Championship before being taken over by Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) during the Abu Dhabi GP which closes the 2010 season.

Alonso showed his ambitions from the first GP of the season in Bahrain. The Ferrari driver took advantage of a defective spark plug on Vettel's RB6 and won his first race with the Scuderia. The Spaniard failed to reach the podium in Australia but remained at the top of the Championship. The first setback of the season occurred in Malaysia where the double World Champion retired due to engine failure while he was running in 9th position, following a poorly negotiated qualifying session. He instantly loses the lead in the ranking.

But Felipe Massa's teammate recovered from the Chinese GP, where he asserted himself as boss of the Ferrari team: Alonso overtook Massa in the pit lane and finished ahead of the Brazilian despite a drive through for stolen start. He finished fourth, which allowed him to move up to third position, tied on points with Lewis Hamilton. The following race is a weekend not to be missed for Alonso, since it takes place on his native lands. He passed the test in front of his fans, finishing in second place.

La F10 seems to be performing well in Monaco but Alonso sees his hopes ruined by hitting the rail during the third free practice session. The Spaniard does not participate in qualifying and starts 24th. But he took advantage of the safety car on the second lap of the race to change tires and managed to grab all eight points for sixth place. In Turkey, the bad harvest continues: Alonso is eliminated in Q2 and fails to keep up with the pace of the Mercedes and Renault in the race, he ranked 8th. Same result in Valencia, where the Ferrari driver returned to the pits too late after the appearance of the safety car, which caused him to lose many places. In the meantime, he fortunately scored big points, with a 3rd place in Canada.
The Spaniard and Ferrari fall back into their mistakes at Silverstone. Alonso overtakes Kubica in a chicane; her team believing the maneuver to be legal, she did not order them to let the Pole pass back. He received a penalty, finished far from the points and saw his rivals escape the rankings.

The German GP is the turning point of the season but will have generated a lot of ink. If the Spaniard wins the 25 points for victory, the team instruction indirectly indicating to Felipe Massa to let his teammate pass will have marked the season of the Scuderia and its drivers both from the point of view of image and that of of the rank. Alonso appears as sole boss at Ferrari, Massa being clearly ousted from the title race.

The season continues in Hungary, where the former Renault driver takes the second step of the podium, taking advantage of a penalty imposed on Sebastian Vettel. He regains ground on most of his rivals and, in the general classification, he is only 20 points behind the winner of the day, Mark Webber.

The Spa-Francorchamps circuit was not favorable to Alonso: tenth on the grid, he was harpooned by Barrichello at the start of the race then retired before the finish. Luckily for the Spaniard, Sebastian Vettel catches Jenson Button. The Ferrari driver consoles himself with the scoreless results from two other contenders.

But, at the end of the Belgian GP, ​​the situation became complicated for Alonso. The Ferrari driver is the lowest placed of the five contenders, 41 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton. Eyes now turn to the pilots McLaren and Red Bull but no one is yet prepared for the return of the Alonso tornado.

The Spaniard has had a breathtaking end to the season. Alonso delights Ferrari fans by signing a double pole victory during the Italian Grand Prix. After this remarkable success, the native of Oviedo seems to be transformed. He repeated the feat at the following GP in Singapore, while Vettel put pressure on him throughout the race. He resisted the RB6 n°5, won for the 4th time of the year and returned to the top of the ranking. At Suzuka, he climbed onto the third step of the podium and thus moved back into second position, tied on points with Sebastian Vettel. The two contenders are only 14 points behind the Australian leader before the first Korean GP in F1 history.

The Yeongam circuit is another important turning point of the season. Launched in pouring rain, the RB6s dismounted, with a premature exit for Mark Webber and an engine failure for Sebastian Vettel. Fernando Alonso just has to pick up another victory which allows him to regain the lead in the Championship, just two races from the end of the season.

The Brazilian GP eliminates Jenson Button from the title race, while Lewis Hamilton only has a slim chance of being able to catch up with Fernando Alonso. The race is dominated by Sebastian Vettel who is ahead of Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso. The latter secures the points with a new podium. Red Bull ultimately chose not to favor Mark Webber, the best placed in Dieter Mateschitz's team. The Manufacturers' Championship is therefore assured by Red Bull, but Alonso still has an eight-point lead over the Australian and 15 points over the German before the last GP in Abu Dhabi.

Unfortunately, this lead does not allow the Spaniard to collect his third World Champion title, due to an unfortunate strategy ordered by his team. The Scuderia's shortcomings finally caught up with Fernando Alonso, who thought he had won the World Champion title in his first season with Ferrari. In this area, the Spaniard will not have been able to match his predecessor at Ferrari, Kimi Räikkönen.