Alonso takes another big step towards Le Mans

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Here it is, the moment we've been waiting for! Fernando Alonso steps into the Toyota Gazoo Racing LMP1 to take part in the FIA World Endurance Championship rookie test at Bahain International Circuit.

It's been widely rumoured for weeks, but it finally happened on Sunday.

Alonso is already confirmed as taking part in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January, with Zak Brown's United Autosports LMP2 team alongside young McLaren driver Lando Norris.

But the two-time world champion's ultimate aim is to enter the Le Mans 24 Hours. This weekend's test with Toyota is the biggest indication yet that he will indeed be on the grid for the 2018 race next June.

It's all part of Alonso's plan to complete the Triple Crown. A previous winner of the Monaco Grand Prix, Alonso made a splash in this year's Indianapolis 500 and now wants a crack at the famous Le Mans event.

Prior to the rookie test, Alonso spent the Saturday trackside as an interested spectator of the Six Hours of Bahrain, the final round of this year's WEC season.

Alonso ran into some familiar faces in the paddock, including former Formula 1 star Mark Webber (pictured below). Since retiring from Formula 1 at the end of 2013, Webber spent three seasons in WEC with Porsche, and won the 2015 championship.

Webber is a veteran of five Le Mans events and was runner-up in the 2015 race with team mates Timo Bernhard and a certain Brendon Hartley.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.