Fernando Alonso has opened up the “fear” he felt inside his stomach after walking away unhurt from a terrifying high-speed collision at the United States Grand Prix. The Alpine star was involved in a heavy shunt with Lance Stroll as the drivers battled for sixth place at the Circuit of the Americas and was fortunate to escape without injury after a dramatic incident on lap 22.
The 41-year-old had started 14th in the grid having taken an engine penalty in qualifying but managed to work his way through the field after starting on the hard tyre. The Spaniard then approached Lance Stroll on the back straight with DRS and was about to make the overtake when the Canadian made a slight move to the left to cover him off.
However, it was too late to make such a defensive move at high speed and Alonso was left with nowhere to go but to crash into his left rear tyre, which sent the veteran airborne for a matter of seconds before he landed, spinning and crashing into the barrier.
Remarkably, Alonso limped back to the pits for a change of tyres when the safety car was deployed and was able to continue, fighting back to cross the line in seventh place. But aside from his incredible comeback drive, the two-time world champion was just grateful to still be conscious after a scary collision with Stroll.
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“In the end, to finish seventh is incredible. The last laps, I was pushing like it was qualifying. It was my best race of the season, but the fear is still in my stomach.
After the crash, I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the race. I just wanted to finish the race.”
After the race, Alonso and Stroll – who will be team-mates at Aston Martin next year to add to the drama – both claimed it was an unfortunate racing incident as the drivers conceded they had both moved in close proximity to each other at speeds exceeding 170mph.
However, the race stewards took a differing view and penalised Stroll with a three-place grid penalty.
Alonso was later handed a retrospective 30-second penalty after it was ruled his team had sent his car back on the track in an unsafe condition following a protest from Haas, undoing all of his hard work on the track.
As a result, he was demoted to 15th, losing his six championship points in the process, although the controversial decision gave team-mate Esteban Ocon one point after he was promoted to 10th place.
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