Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso spends third night in hospital

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Fernando Alonso has spent a third night in hospital following his accident during testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Having hit the wall on the inside of the track between turns 3 and 4, Alonso was taken to the circuit medical centre - where his manager Luis Garcia Abad says he was conscious - before being airlifted to hospital. Having undergone "precautionary checks" including CT and MRI scans, Alonso then spent Sunday night in hospital.

On Monday it was confirmed Alonso would spend at least another night in hospital, with Abad admitting "I can't say if it is one, two or three days more" that Alonso would remain in for observation.

With the Spaniard having been hospitalised since Sunday it now appears extremely unlikely that he will take part in the final pre-season test which starts at the Circuit de Catalunya tomorrow. Jenson Button is likely to do the majority of driving, with McLaren also able to call on reserve drivers Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne.

McLaren said on Monday that its investigations in to the cause of the incident had revealed Alonso crashed due to "unpredictably gusty winds".

Click here for the gallery from day four of the second test

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.