Fernando’s first victory in a McLaren. The reigning world champion had elected to join the team more than a year earlier, after clinching his first world title in 2005. His victory at Sepang was symbolic, underlining that he had not only made the correct choice to leave Renault, but also that he could and would be a championship contender for a third straight year.

Not the greatest moment in Fernando’s McLaren history, but an iconic one? Definitely. Fernando had lined up eighth for the wet start to the race, and was optimistic about a positive result. The Spaniard’s strong start was to prove his downfall: on the outside, and in fierce spray, he couldn’t see the accident ahead of him, and charged through into third before being heavily collected by the stricken cars of Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen.

The lack of McLaren Honda performance did little to deter Fernando, who gleefully took the bit between his teeth and battled on regardless. His fifth place in Budapest was the highlight of an otherwise barren year, but demonstrated that, at a circuit where a horsepower deficit was less of an advantage than elsewhere, he could truly shine.

The headline on the front cover of Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper simply read ‘Luckiest Man Alive’; the man reading the paper poked his head up from the pages, the shock of dark hair failing to conceal the impish visage of one Fernando Alonso. Make no mistake, this was a big one: touching wheels with Esteban Gutierrez at almost 200mph and subsequently barrel-rolling his car into oblivion, Fernando was indeed fortunate to walk away from this one…

This was one of those first laps when everything goes right. Fernando lined up a relatively standard 14th, got a perfect getaway and immediately began ducking and diving behind other cars in the tow down to the first corner. He then benefited from the chaos around Sebastian Vettel’s shunt to hoover up a few more places and ended that lap an incredible seventh! He would go one better in the race, finishing a hugely impressive sixth.

If the 2015 season was low on on-track highlights, it was peppered with amusing episodes off it. The pictures of Fernando sat basking in the Brazilian sun certainly had a lasting effect. The resulting photograph sparked a million internet memes, its own hashtag, and, really, what else is there left to say…?

When it began to drizzle with just a handful of laps remaining in an already fizzing European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, Fernando needed no second invitation to grab the lead from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. The pair messily banged wheels, prompting first a finger-wagging admonishment to the post-race TV cameras, then a testy argument between the two in the cool-down room. Classic Alonso, as Alan Partridge might say.

At the end of lap one, Fernando limped into the pits with two punctures and a heavily broken car. Yet, fifty laps later, he had hauled himself into a scarcely believable seventh place – and in a car that had been robbed of valuable downforce in that first-lap clash. In the same situation, most drivers would have bitterly complained about the lack of grip; Fernando simply put his head down and got on with it. A titanic performance.

Looking back, it all seemed so easy: get in the car, drive it fast and try to win. But this was no straightforward feat. There were never any guarantees that Fernando would be competitive, yet he took to the new environment seamlessly, humbly became the star of the Month of May and drove a brilliant, collected race that took him to within a whisker of a shot at outright victory. Sensational.

This wasn’t so much about an individual achievement, but Fernando’s overall dominance of the whole weekend. He was fastest overall in FP1, FP2, Q2, Q3, sealing pole position, then on Sunday went on to set fastest lap, earn victory and lead all except five laps of the race. Factor in too that Monaco is a ‘special’ race and this more than makes us choose this race as Fernando’s ultimate McLaren moment.