Alonso: A win with big numbers

Finally, Scuderia Ferrari has shaken two monkeys off its back: the one concerning Singapore and the other to do with racing under floodlights. Not only had the Maranello team never won this race, but it had not even picked up any points, as was also the case in the first running of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the other fixture on the calendar held, at least for part of the time, under artificial lighting.

Fernando Alonso’s win and Felipe Massa’s eighth place have now put both these negatives behind us. Yesterday’s race was also very significant in terms of the statistics. Fernando’s fourth win with Ferrari brings his total number of career wins to 25, the same as two legendary figures in the sport, Jim Clark and Niki Lauda. There are now only five drivers ahead of Fernando in the all time winners list: Jackie Stewart (27 wins,) Nigel Mansell (31,) Ayrton Senna (41,) Alain Prost (51) and Michael Schumacher (91.)

A perfect weekend for the man from Oviedo means he is the twenty first driver to join the Grand Slam group, meaning that over one Grand Prix weekend, he took the win, pole position and the fastest race lap, as well as leading the event from the start to the chequered flag. Leading this particular classification is Jim Clark, who scored no less than eight Grand Slams, while the only other current driver to feature is Michael Schumacher, who has five to his name. The fact that Fernando is particularly fond of the Singapore track can also be seen from his personal score here: two wins, one third place, one pole position and two fastest race laps. Really a weekend with big numbers!