Setback for Mclaren as Alonso loses rear wheel

Mclaren are playing catch-up after a wheel nut failure wrote off Fernando Alonso’s opening morning of Formula One pre-season testing in Barcelona.

The British team headed into yesterday’s first winter test brimming with optimism after ditching their beleaguered engine supplier Honda and teaming up with Renault for 2018.

But Alonso, 36, spun into the gravel when his rightrear wheel detached. The Spaniard, who had completed six laps with the session just 37 minutes old, emerged unscathed from the incident.

Alonso returned to the circuit later in the day to take his lap count to 51 but Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, who set the fastest time, managed more than a century of circuits, while Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, second fastest on the time sheets, and team-mate Lewis Hamilton completed 83 laps between them.

All eyes are on Mclaren this season following their underwhelming displays in recent years. Alonso said: “It was a very, very small problem, but very graphic and very obvious because a car in the gravel is a big thing. “But there are six teams in the garage with the doors closed and the cars in pieces, but no one sees that. There is no picture of that.

“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.”

Mclaren, winners of 20 drivers’ and constructors’ titles, have failed to win a grand prix in six years, have not been on the podium since 2014 and finished second bottom in last year’s standings.

Zak Brown, Mclaren’s American executive director said: “We are working hard and we have not set targets for specific race finishes, but we want to be competitive.”

Ricciardo set the pace ahead of Bottas and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. Hamilton, who took over testing duties from Bottas after the lunch break, finished fifth in the order as conditions worsened in the afternoon.