When Fernando Alonso announced that he was leaving Alpine to switch to Aston Martin for 2023 there were many who felt it would surely end in tears. And tears there were in Bahrain, but tears of ecstasy as the two-time champion scored big in the first race of the new season.
Alonso had already been in eye-catchingly strong form in pre-season testing here a week ago, but many still doubted that would translate to genuine race race when it mattered.
But after securing fifth place on the grid for the Bahrain GP in Saturday's qualifying - behind the Red Bulls and Ferraris, but ahead of both Mercedes drivers - Alonso silenced the doubters and proved that the Aston pace was no mirage but very real indeed.
Alonso lost out at the start to Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and was then hit from behind by his own team mate Lance Stroll, but he survived the encounter without any significant damage to the AMR23 and was soon moving forward.
He made an early successful move on George Russell, and then had a brilliant battle to dive past Hamilton in turn 4 on lap 36 to retake fifth place.
That would have been the overtake of the evening - until he came out on top in a subsequent pitched battle with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz that was even more edge-of-the seat than his pass on Hamilton.
By then, Sainz' team mate Charles Leclerc had retired from the race with technical issues, meaning that Alonso crossed the finish line in third place and joined Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez on the podium.
“Finishing on the podium in the first race of the year," Alonso said in parc ferme, shaking his head in disbelief. The last time he finished in the top three was in Qatar in 2021 - and before that, it was Hungary in 2014!
"It's just amazing what Aston Martin did over the winter to have the second-best car on race one. This is just unreal," said the 41-year-old driver.
“It’s amazing for the team,” he continued. “It was a great weekend and finishing on the podium in the first race of the year is just amazing.”
"We didn't have the best start today. We had to pass on track. It felt more exciting and more adrenaline for sure. So if people enjoy, we did enjoy as well - so let’s go to Jeddah!"
Alonso had initially thought the early impact that could have put him out of the race had come from Russell, but he was told afterwards that it had been Stroll at fault.
“Lance was trying to get past George," explained race engineer Chris Cronin. "As you switched back to try and get Hamilton, Lance just couldn’t quite get stopped in time ... There was no damage to either car, so all okay.”
“I thought it was George," Alonso admitted, adding that he saw Stroll as an inspiration for coming back from surgery for injuries sustained in a training accident the week before pre-season testing.
"Lance is my hero,” he declared. “Amazing performance from him. [He] had surgery 12 days ago and now he’s fighting right with everybody."
Alonso will be hoping that Aston Martin's surprise form carries over to the next race in Saudi Arabia in two week's time.
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