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During the second Free Practice session at this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, the steering wheel of Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin got detached while he was driving. The incident occurred soon after the Spaniard started his run in the practice session, and while he was able to get the steering wheel back into place, the driver had to make his way back to the pits for the crew to work on the issue by changing parts of the steering system.
Before the steering wheel came off, the Aston Martin driver was in contact with his team, asking to replace the wheel anyway as it was turning off. As he was relaying his issue, the incident occurred, causing Alonso to head off the track.
"Change the steering wheel. There's a problem with the steering wheel, it's switching off," the driver radioed.
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The FP2 session ended for Fernando Alonso after he was able to put in only 19 laps, the lowest number on the grid. He also missed out on the first free practice session after handing over the keys to his AMR25 to the 2022 F2 Champion and Aston Martin's reserve driver, Felipe Drugovich.
Alonso's FP2 ended in 15th place on the leaderboard for the session, after he put in a best lap time of 1:31.825, which was 1.320s off from the top position of the period, held by McLaren's Oscar Piastri.
The Bahrain Grand Prix weekend continues on Saturday, April 12, with the third Free Practice bout, followed by the qualifying for Sunday's race.
"This is Formula 1 and we have to love it as it is": Fernando Alonso responds to the excitement-short Japanese Grand Prix
Last weekend, F1 was in Japan for the Grand Prix that took place at the Suzuka Circuit, which was, by some accounts, a not-too-exciting race. According to Fernando Alonso, this is how the sport has always been, and it's changed more so in recent times. Apart from a few overtakes, the Top 10 drivers finished in the same places they started from.
Speaking about the GP, which featured Alonso keeping the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda behind him for most of the race, the Spaniard suggested looking into the history of the sport for similar events like the Japanese Grand Prix.
"Formula 1 has been always like that," said Fernando Alonso. "Sometimes you watch a race from '86 and there is one stop, and it's a beautiful thing to watch. And maybe the first two cars are 45 seconds away from the third car.
"Now we are in constant search for more overtaking, more pitstops, [bringing] all the teams closer together. And there are other beautiful categories to search and to watch that. This is Formula 1 and we have to love it as it is." [via Motorsport.com]
Fernando Alonso's race at the Suzuka Circuit ended with the Aston Martin driver taking home 11th place, making this the third consecutive race where Alonso has taken home no points.
