Crash drives Alonso nuts
Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who set the fastest time, managed more than a century of circuits, while Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, second fastest, and teammate Lewis Hamilton completed 83 laps between them. All eyes are on McLaren following their underwhelming displays in recent years and, naturally, they moved to play down Alonso’s early failure. “It was a very, very small problem, but very graphic and very obvious because a car in the gravel is a big thing,” said Alonso.
“But there are six teams in the garage with the doors closed and the cars in pieces, but no one sees that.
“There are a lot of teams in big trouble but us with a wheel nut failure, that will make the story.
“We didn’t plan to run much in the morning so it won’t cost us and the failure was not a handicap. I did the most laps in the afternoon and others had issues.”
Alonso, the double world champion who extended his McLaren deal in October, managed only one lap on the opening morning last year due to reliability issues. He then failed to finish more than half the races he contested during a miserable campaign.
McLaren have failed to win a grand prix in six years, have not been on the podium since 2014 and finished next to bottom last year.
Zak Brown, McLaren’s executive director, said: “All the teams will have a variety of issues throughout testing and we lost very little time so it is not a big deal.
“This team is used to public pressure and having eyes on us. We thrive on stepping up
to the plate.”