Alonso serves up Honda criticism after engine woe

NEW balls, please. Or, a new engine please, in the case of the grotty McLaren Fernando Alonso was briefly driving in front of his home fans yesterday. So bad was his chronically unreliable Honda engine that it spewed oil over the tarmac, a plume of smoke the only other remnant of the double world champion’s first practice session. It was then back to his hotel for a game of tennis while the rest of the cast for the Spanish Grand Prix drove around the Circuit de Catalunya. What indignities are being visited upon the Spaniard, who a fortnight from now will escape his travails and instead compete in the Indianapolis 500. Alonso was making a point as he posted a photo from his tennis match on Instagram. ‘Keeping the body active,’ he wrote, standing by his trainer Edoardo Bendinelli with tennis balls to hand. His morning involvement lasted one lap. ‘The engine was not good enough,’ he said. ‘We came out of the pit lane and there was a hole in the engine . . . it blew up after 400 metres. We ran out of time and we put on a set of tyres where everything was not perfectly calibrated.’ And as for the tennis? ‘It was not my decision. I have very little time in these weeks with travelling to Indy ready for the race, with planes, etc. So, when I discovered that I had two hours free, I went for some training. My dedication is still 100 per cent to my fitness and my preparation. ‘It wasn’t humour to go outside the circuit to play tennis — it was preparation.’ McLaren are ready to take remedial action by asking Mercedes for some assistance with their Honda engines. None of the parties will say so outright, but collusion is going on. Meanwhile, this Grand Prix appears to be Mercedes’s to lose. They set the fastest time of the day through Lewis Hamilton. His team-mate Valtteri Bottas was second quickest. The Ferraris were next. Alonso managed 21 laps in the afternoon — the fewest and slowest of all. He said of Honda: ‘I try to drive as fast as I can but it’s a much bigger problem for them.’ As for the possibility of Alonso rejoining Ferrari, the Scuderia’s team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said cryptically: ‘Why do we have to start talking about something that is distracting us?’ That is what we call a non-denial denial.