Fernando Alonso emerged unscathed from a test crash on Sunday which saw him airlifted to hospital after he collided with the trackside wall at Turn 3.
The Spaniard was conscious and talking immediately after the incident, but was suffering some pain. He was driven to the circuit’s medical centre before being taken to the nearest hospital by helicopter.
Following a CT scan in the afternoon, McLaren confirmed he had suffered no injuries, but would be kept in hospital overnight.
“Fernando’s accident was just one of those things that happens in testing,” explained racing director Eric Boullier.
The moment of impact
“Fortunately, he’s fine, but was concussed during the accident, which therefore required an overnight stay in hospital as a precaution. That’s normal practice after a concussion.
“Inevitably, some media reports have sought to exaggerate the severity of the incident – it was just a normal testing accident.”
The team managed to repair their car with plans for Jenson Button to take over in the afternoon, but in light of the crash, chose to pack up early.
“While the car wasn’t particularly badly damaged, it was enough of an impact to warrant quite a lengthy check of the gearbox and power unit systems. Given the time needed to carry out such an analysis, we decided to bring the curtain down on our test a few hours earlier than anticipated.”
The crash is just another problem on an already long list of issues which have hampered McLaren and Honda’s test so far.
The exact cause has yet to be established, although Carlos Sainz Jr blamed high winds for his accident which happened at the same corner.
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