Excitement in Melbourne

Wild Mercedes crash: Alonso faces a penalty!

George Russell crashed. Alonso (right) receives a penalty.

(Bild: APA/AFP/Paul Crock, APA/Martin KEEP)

After the violent accident involving Mercedes driver George Russell, Fernando Alonso was the focus of attention: did the Aston Martin rookie provoke the crash with a braking maneuver? After investigations, the Spaniard was given a penalty. 

While chasing Alonso, Russell had to brake hard, oversteered and slid into the crash barriers. Recordings show that Alonso took his foot off the gas much more on the approach to turn six than on the previous lap. As a result of this action, the 42-year-old Spaniard had to go to the stewards, as it could have been a brake test.

Two places back
"I don't know whether he had a problem or not. He surprised me with it. I'm not going to accuse him until we've seen more," said Russell after the race. Alonso emphasized that it had not been a "brake test" against Russell. Nevertheless, the two-time world champion subsequently received a 20-second penalty. The reason given was that Alonso's maneuver was "unpredictable". As a result, he dropped from sixth to eighth place. 

Klien: "Alonso slowed down more"
 "If I look at it very closely, Alonso slowed down more than normal," said ServusTV pundit Christian Klien. Timo Glock said on Sky: "Alonso braked very early and let Russell run up. Alonso's idea was to catch Russell on the wrong foot, slow him down and then be on the gas early to open up a gap."