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Fernando Alonso is aiming to notch a hat trick of wins in Bahrain this year and firmly put the misery of a "garage incident" which wrecked his podium chances last April behind him.
Labelled a loser on fans' blogs for his performance at the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix where he finished in fifth position, the frustrated Spaniard's lack of pace was blamed on an off-track incident involving the team he later bitterly fell out with.
The two-time Formula One world champion has now returned to the Renault fold and has undertaken a series of test drives for the French team.
His results made it look like old times again. Alonso had a fastest time of 1 minute, 19.503 seconds from 70 laps around the 4.423-kilometer (2.75-mile) Circuito de
Jerez, beating former McLaren teammate Pedro De La Rosa, who clocked 1:19.650.
"I could not wait to drive again, but at the same time I was a bit tentative," said Alonso, who last drove a Renault when he clinched his second straight F1 title in 2006. "But I quickly settled back into the team and everything went well."
Following a rocky season marked by a testy relationship with rookie team-mate Lewis Hamilton and a third-place finish in the drivers' standings, Alonso severed ties with
McLaren in November before signing with Renault.
He said: "The team is completely different to the one I left in 2006. There have been some big changes, they have improved a lot of things and strengthened many areas, so in one sense it is a new adventure with a new team," the 26-year-old said.
Alonso has another rookie partner in Nelson Piquet Jr but said he expects to have a good relationship with his new team-mate.
Although victorious in Bahrain in 2005 and 2006 last season's visit to the kingdom proved a nightmare for Alonso.
He lacked the pace of Hamilton at the Sakhir circuit, leaving him fifth at the flag. But according to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo, it was possible that an incident in the Mercedes-powered team's garage in Bahrain on the Friday night literally put a dent in Alonso's podium ambition.
Although he himself played down the possible effect on his car's speed of the incident at the time, some parts at the front of the single-seater had to be replaced on the Saturday morning after a lighting gantry fell from the ceiling of the garage.
The publication said only the front wing of Alonso's car was changed but it was later thought that the entire monocoque might need to be scrapped prior to the next race.
Alonso told La Gazzetta dello Sport: "Maybe a mistake was made while re-assembling the car after that mishap. The fact is the car had a strange behaviour from then on."
The Bahrain bang was to be the start of a season full of bitterness and recriminations. This time round it's all changed.
"For 2008, I don't anticipate problems with anybody, and Flavio (Briatore) has always demonstrated that he can manage these situations very well," Alonso said, referring to the Renault team boss.
