Fernando Alonso has refused to make too much of his run-in with Lewis Hamilton in the opening stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Spaniard puts collision down to performance differential
Fernando Alonso has refused to make too much of his run-in with Lewis Hamilton in the opening stages of Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.
Having dropped to ninth place on the opening lap of the race at Sakhir, Hamilton crashed his McLaren-Mercedes into the back of Alonso's Renault, damaging the Spaniard's rear wing.
Hamilton was forced to pit for a new front wing and never really recovered, eventually finishing the race in 13th place.
With the pair's bitter relationship last season at McLaren doubtless at the forefront of minds, there were suggestions that Alonso brake-tested his former team-mate.
Sinister
But, after finishing 10th in the race, Alonso said he did not see anything sinister about the incident.
"The McLaren was just a lot faster than my car and he crashed into me," the double world champion told Spanish network
Telecinco.
Renault head of engineering Pat Symonds later showed data from Alonso's car to disprove the theory he had deliberately lifted off the throttle.
"Fernando came out of the turn and accelerated down the straight into fifth gear, hitting 227kph, full throttle, no touching of the brakes or anything like that," Symonds said.
"You can see on the accelerometer the impact, that he got hit from behind.
"So all I can say from our side is there's no blame attributable to Fernando, which is what some of the speculation might be.
"There's no suggestion in any of the data that anything untoward happened. You don't need to be an expert to see that."
Impact
Alonso added that, despite the minor damage to his rear wing, the accident had little impact on his car's overall performance and the eventual result.
"There was some damage to the rear wing, but the car wasn't handling too badly compared to practice and qualifying. It was more or less the same so I don't think I could have done much more," he continued.
Alonso has already turned his attention to his home race in three weeks' time, saying the team are pinning their hopes on updates to their R28 car at Barcelona.
"I think the whole team knows we need to improve as quickly as possible because nobody likes to complete 58 laps in 10th place or 11th," he added.
"So all our hopes are pinned on the improvements we have for Barcelona. If that goes wrong, then we are going to have to start to worry for the rest of the season."
