Crash with Gutierrez was a racing incident – Alonso

Fernando Alonso says Esteban Gutierrez was not to blame for the big crash that took both drivers out of the Australian Grand Prix, classing it as a "racing incident".

Just before the mid-way point of the 2016 season opener Alonso and Gutierrez made contact on the run to Turn 3, with the McLaren hitting the wall hard and flipping several times. The FIA stewards investigated the collision but took no further action.

"I’m thankful I’m alive and that nothing serious happened – it was a big shunt," Alonso said. "A combination of factors caused Esteban [Gutierrez] and me to end up crashing.

"I was in the car flying and bouncing around – I could see the sky, then the ground, then the sky again. It was a racing incident – I’m very happy we’re both fine, which is the most important thing.

RelatedPosts

How the Austrian GP cemented F1 2025 as a two-horse race

9 hours ago

Toto Wolff: Kimi Antonelli’s ‘unfortunate’ Austria F1 error ‘can happen to the greats’

11 hours ago

"But, soon afterwards, my thoughts switched to frustration and disappointment, because we missed an opportunity to get some points in the first race of the season, and we probably lost a power unit too because the car is more or less completely destroyed.

"We risk our lives every time we get in a Formula 1 car: these things happen, but I’m extremely happy to be okay."

His team-mate Jenson Button finished 14^th after a strategy error and bad luck with the red flag: "My car wasn’t too bad, but I think we made some imperfect strategic calls this afternoon. Also, the red flag hurt us because we’d already made our first stop.

"Then, after the restart, we ran the super-soft – which lasted about 10 laps – and then fitted the back-up, which everyone else had been on since the restart. Around here, you can catch up but you can’t easily overtake, so we ended up at the back of the queue after making our stop."