F1: Alonso Survives Wheel Damage In Turkey

Formula 1

F1: Alonso Survives Wheel Damage In Turkey

Fernando Alonso ran the last four and a half laps of the Turkish Grand Prix with a badly damaged left rear wheel...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted May 31, 2010 Istanbul (TUR)

With less than five laps to go in the Turkish GP, a large piece of BBS rim from Fernando Alonso's Ferrari likely pierced the tire on Vitaly Petrov's Renault; Alonso finished 8th while Petrov was scored 15th. (Photo: Adam Cooper, SPEED.com)

Fernando Alonso had a lucky escape in Turkey when he ran the last four and a half laps of the race with a badly damaged left rear wheel.

A large chunk of the BBS rim was broken off when he made contact with Vitaly Petrov. The damage also explains why the Renault’s tire deflated so quickly, as presumably it was pierced by the piece of metal.

Alonso apparently suffered no loss of pressure and indeed set his fastest lap two laps after the collision. But given the high speed nature of so many corners at the Istanbul track clearly there was a risk that either the rim or the tire could have suffered a further failure.

Alonso meanwhile managed to climb up to eighth place from his disappointing 12th grid spot.

“We recovered some positions again, starting 12th and finishing eighth,” Alonso said. “But the race was quite a boring race for us, always stuck in traffic and fighting with Renault, Felipe with Robert and me with Petrov. So obviously we don’t want to fight with Renault for eighth place, we’d prefer to fight with Red Bull and McLaren for podiums, so we must improve.”

Alonso is hoping that forthcoming update packages will make a difference.

A large chunk of Fernando Alonso's BBS rim was broken off when he made contact with Vitaly Petrov Sunday at Istanbul Park, Turkey. (Photo: Adam Cooper, SPEED.com)

“I think we underperformed in Turkey and in Barcelona, so we need to understand the reasons why. We remain calm and optimistic because in Canada there’s a new package for us, Valencia another one, so hopefully in the next races we can recover the direction for a podium."

“I think we lack some aerodynamic efficiency, and some improvements in the car that are coming. We prepared very hard for the first half of the championship, we arrived to Bahrain with the maximum updates, and we won that race. And then we are preparing more updates for Valencia and Canada, so hopefully they pay off."

“I think in general we are one point in front of Vettel in the championship, it’s a clear example of how we maximized the potential of the car so far, because with Red Bull the quickest car at the moment, they are one point behind us. So we try to do our maximum.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter