Fernando Alonso will likely be counting down the minutes until he can finally call an end to his two-year spell at Alpine, following yet another disastrous session for the most experienced driver on the grid.
The double World Champion and team-mate Esteban Ocon clashed not once but twice during the 100km sprint race at Interlagos, much to the frustration of the 41-year-old.
Ocon and Alonso’s first coming together came on the opening lap of the sprint on the exit of Turn Four, following a dive on the inside by the Frenchman as they approached the corner.
Ocon’s dive resulted in the duo going side-by-side through the corner, which left Alonso without any room on the exit of the turn, which saw the veteran go straight over the kerbs.
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Perhaps as a result of rainfall over the weekend, but as Alonso went to apply the throttle whilst going over the yellow, green and white coloured kerbs, the rear of his A522 stepped right out on him resulting in lightning reactions from the Spaniard.
He managed to turn out against the rear of his car stepping out on him, which saved Alonso from crashing into the side of Ocon.
The pair came together for real at the end of the lap whilst going down the start/finish straight.
Ocon’s A522 gave Alonso a beautiful slipstream down the straight, which saw the number 14 close rapidly on the French driver.
Drama struck, though, as Alonso’s front-wing made contact with the rear-right tyre of Ocon, resulting in substantial damage to the former Ferrari driver’s wing.
He was quick onto the radio to throw the blame at Ocon, after saying to his team: ” I lost the front-wing, thanks to our friend”.
This wasn’t how the FIA judged the incident, though, after awarding Alonso a five-place grid penalty and two penalty points.
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Both Ocon and Alonso visited the stewards after the race, where Alonso admitted to having “slightly misjudged the time to pull out and struck Ocon from behind, his front wing striking Ocon’s rear tyre”.
The FIA released the following statement after awarding Alonso with the penalty, which increases his penalty points total to 6/12 and will result in the Spaniard starting P18 on Sunday.
“The Stewards found that Alonso was wholly at fault for the collision, which at those speeds and at that location on the track was dangerous,” said the FIA.