Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso declared fit to race in Malaysian GP

Fernando Alonso has been declared fit to race in the Malaysian Grand Prix after passing FIA fitness tests.

Following a crash in pre-season testing, Alonso sat out the opening round of the season in Australia on medical advice. Having already been given the green light following tests in the UK on Sunday, Alonso still had to pass a number of fitness tests at Sepang before he would be allowed to race, which the FIA said was successfully carried out on Thursday morning.

"In accordance with normal procedures, McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso was this morning examined by the FIA Medical Delegate and Chief Medical Officer at the Sepang Circuit Medical Centre," an FIA statement read.

"During the examination the driver passed all mandatory fitness tests and has thus been declared fit to race in this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix."

Alonso will therefore race the MP4-30 for the first time having missed the grand prix in Melbourne, where Jenson Button finished two laps down in 11th place and Kevin Magnussen failed to start.

Valtteri Bottas was also cleared to race on Thursday morning having recovered from a back injury which ruled him out of the Australian Grand Prix.

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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.