Fernando Alonso has confirmed the extent of his injuries following his Australian Grand Prix crash – injuries which have ruled him out of the Bahrain GP this weekend.
The Spaniard, although cleared by medical staff at the Melbourne circuit shortly after the crash, later revealed he broke a rib in the accident and suffered a small pneumothorax on his lung. Those injuries only became apparent following more detailed checks several days later.
As a result, he won't race in Bahrain and could even miss the third round in China, but will undergo further tests next week.
"I have a broken rib and I'm in some pain so it's not easy to sleep," Alonso explained on Thursday.
"It is not 100 percent [that I will race in China]," he admitted. "So there will be another test. I need to do in the next eight to 10 days. After that test, the FIA will evaluate again as they did now.
"First of all is the safety – and hopefully everything is okay. We need to see with the next test."
Describing in more detail what happened after the crash, he said: "Last week I was okay. On Sunday I had some knee pain but no big things, and I had the green light from the doctors to leave the track and it was okay.
"On Monday, a little of overall pain but nothing serious. I flew back, I arrived in Spain and the pain was similar or a bit worse so we did a proper check.
"I had a small pneumothorax on the lung, so we took the advice from the doctor to relax at home and make everything come to normal and we repeated the scan on Monday and the pneumothorax was gone, but we had some rib fractures.
"It's risky because of the unique position in the car, and the risk a fracture could move into the lung. It is not a broken arm but it is in the chest, where there are some important things."
The McLaren driver insists he respects the FIA's decision not to allow him to compete and race this weekend.
"I am disappointed. We want to race, we love the sport, so when you come here and you cannot even try, it is always sad – but it is understandable.
"I respect the decision. It has been some painful days with some pain at home, but I was ready to work with this pain somehow in the car and make sure I could race because at the end of the day the pain is manageable if you don't think [about it] so much."
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