Alonso set for McLaren return in Malaysia

McLaren-Honda has announced that Fernando Alonso will race during this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix if the Spaniard clears final FIA medical checks on Thursday at the Sepang International Circuit.

The two-time world champion underwent a first series of tests at the University of Cambridge in the UK on Sunday and received the green light to fly to Malaysia.

Alonso had to sit out the final pre-season test as well as the opening round in Melbourne after suffering concussion in a crash at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya’s Turn 3 during the second winter testing session.

Since then, the Spaniard has been training hard to be fully race fit for round two of this year’s championship. Alonso's recovery saw the McLaren returnee travel to Woking last week where he spent some valuable time in the simulator.

The double world champion also took the opportunity to go over the details of his accident with his engineers as circumstances surroundings his pre-season crash remain unclear and subject to an FIA investigation.

“While there was nothing evident in the extensive car telemetry data, nor anything abnormal in the subsequent reconstructions and laboratory tests, Fernando recalls a sense of ‘heavy’ steering prior to the accident,” reads the McLaren statement.

“Consequently, the team has fitted an additional sensor to the car, to increase our data capture.

“Fernando is very much looking forward to getting back into the car and making a substantial contribution to our collective efforts with Honda, to accelerate the required improvement to our on-track performance.”

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