03/29/2021 8:15 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 03/29/2021 8:15 AM
Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso had to abandon the Bahrain Grand Prix due to a rear brake problem caused by a sandwich wrapper that fell into the brake duct, his team,
Alpine
, acknowledged
.
Alonso, in the GP of his re-run in Formula 1 after two seasons of absence, achieved ninth place in the standings and came to occupy seventh during a race in which he was forced to abandon on lap 33, when he was in 15th place after changing the wheels.
According to the executive director of the
Alpine
team
, Marcin Budkowski, during his second and final stop to change the tires "
a wrapping paper from a sandwich got stuck
inside the rear brake duct of Fernando's car."
Alonso's Alpine suffered an unusual problem with the rear brakes that forced him to abandon.
Photo: DPA
"This caused a high temperature and caused damage to the braking system, so we told him to withdraw for safety reasons.
It was very unlucky for Fernando's first race
, considering how well he had gone," Budkowski admitted in statements to the team's official website.
Before that incident, Alonso's Alpine A521 already had "a small problem" that forced the engineers of the French team to "reduce the car's performance," according to the team director.
Alonso himself admitted after the test those problems prior to the final cause of the abandonment.
"The brakes have been the cause of abandonment but before we had some problem with the batteries. It was a race against the foot, but it was exciting," he told
DAZN F1
after the race.
The next opportunity for the Asturian driver, world champion in 2005 and 2006 with the same structure in which he currently runs, then with the Renault name, will be in the Emilia-Romagna (Italy) Grand Prix that will be held from 16 to 18 April at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola.
Source: EFE