Concussed Alonso staying in hospital

Editor

Fernando Alonso will remain in a Barcelona hospital on Sunday evening after he suffered a concussion during his accident on the final day of the second pre-season test.

The double World Champion went side-on into the wall at the exit of Turn 3 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and was immediately taken to the medical centre.

He was then airlifted to hospital and, although McLaren later issued a statement saying that "we just got the result of the CT scan and Alonso is uninjured and fine", it was decided that the Spaniard will spend the night in hospital.

McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier said: "Fernando's accident was just one of those things that happens in testing. 

"Fortunately, he's fine, but was concussed during the accident, which therefore required an overnight stay in hospital as a precaution. That's normal practice after a concussion. Inevitably, some media reports have sought to exaggerate the severity of the incident – it was just a normal testing accident."

McLaren ended their programme early as a result of the accident.

"While the car wasn't particularly badly damaged, it was enough of an impact to warrant quite a lengthy check of the gearbox and power unit systems. Given the time needed to carry out such an analysis, we decided to bring the curtain down on our test a few hours earlier than anticipated," Boullier added.

"It's been a tough week for the whole team, but we'll be back, and pushing harder than ever, in Barcelona next week."