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Alonso recalls Bianchi's 'miracle' P9

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Fernando Alonso describes the ninth place Jules Bianchi scored in Monaco for Marussia in 2014 as "some kind of miracle".

Bianchi finished eighth on track after a chaotic race, with a time penalty demoting him to ninth at the chequered flag. However, it was Marussia's first points and ensured the team now known as Manor finished ninth in the constructors' championship.

With Bianchi in hospital in Nice after suffering severe head injuries in a crash in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, Alonso says it is difficult to overstate the Frenchman's achievement from 12 months ago.

"I think it’s hard to understand when you are in a car that is not competitive, to get some points is some kind of miracle," Alonso said. "It’s what Jules did last year and ninth place and to come here again and not see him together with us on the gird is very sad."

And Alonso admits it is even more difficult thinking of Bianchi in Monaco as he recalls the success of 2014.

"It’s not only here that we remember him, it’s also at every weekend, but here is a little bit more difficult to understand the destiny or to understand the things that happened last year. He is in Nice, so he is half an hour away and hopefully he can feel from all of us some extra power that we send him."

The Manor team are all wearing wristbands marking Bianchi's result during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend.

Click here for a look at the technical updates brought by all the teams at the start of the European season

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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.