32 GP winner Fernando Alonso equals Kimi Raikkonen’s record for the most race starts

Fernando Alonso is making his 349th race start at the Italian Grand Prix and will match Kimi Raikkonen’s record of the most race starts.

Alpine driver Fernando Alonso has made his 349th race start at the Italian Grand Prix equalling Kimi Raikkonen’s record for the most race starts.

Alonso is the oldest driver on the grid aged 41 years and has won 32 races and two world championships in his illustrious 21-year career in F1.

Going forward he has no plans to retire anytime soon and has instead signed a new contract with a multi-year deal with Aston Martin from the 2023 season.

While Alonso was quite happy with the record he said that he does not care too much about it and wanted to focus on racing.

The Spanish driver will extend his record with 50 if not more races as F1 is expected to return with 24 races next season.

The 41-year-old said, “For sure it’s a nice achievement and one I will maybe look back on and be happy about but whilst I am still racing, I don’t stop to think about it and I want to enjoy and maximise each race weekend.”

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Fernando Alonso praises Nych De Vries

After Williams’ Alex Albon could not make it to the Monza race weekend, Nyck De Vries took a seat in his car as a replacement for the weekend.

And throughout the weekend, the Dutch driver has shown impressive pace and performance on the track. He even outperformed his teammate Nicholas Latifi in his first time out in an F1 race in the qualifying at Monza on Saturday.

Alonso noticed De Vries’ performance and praised him for it. The Spaniard said, “I think when you jump in a car and you only have one practice, obviously it’s difficult to get up to speed. So a very good day for him.”

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