Fernando Alonso: A bit of back pain

Fernando Alonso reckons he was "lucky" to escape serious injury in the first corner carnage at Spa although does have a "bit" of back pain

Arriving at Spa, the Championship leader was the only driver to have scored points in every race this season. His run, though, came to an end when he was taken out in a first lap accident through no fault of his own.

Starting fifth on the grid, Alonso was vying for track positions when he was hit from behind. Added to that, Romain Grosjean narrowly avoided hitting his head when his Lotus became airborne in the shunt.

Alonso, who was slow to get out of his stricken F2012 and was assisted by the marshals, later revealed that his back had been hurt in the crash.

"I have a little bit of pain on my back because of the hit," he said. "It is a shame I could not continue the race. I did not know what happened until I saw the TV.

"The cars behind me touched and lost control, and they were in front of us.

"It was a disappointment to see points lost but in five days I can be in the car in Monza.

"You can have an injury in your hand or your head with a crash like that, so I am lucky in that aspect.

"I felt a train coming with a big, big hit. I stayed in the car due to the hit. There was a bit of fire in the car and I could not breathe because of the smoke so I jumped out."

Alonso's DNF cost him a chunk of his Championship lead as Sebastian Vettel, who finished second, is now just 24 points behind with Mark Webber a further 12 off the pace.

Source: Planet-F1

Kovalainen defends Räikkönen - takes a dig at Villeneuve

Heikki Kovalainen wonders over Jacques Villeneuve's statement where Kimi Räikkönen is stamped as a lucky champion.

Villeneuve won his own WDC in 1997, when his Williams-car was clearly the best car in the serie.

- I don't think it was civil text from Villeneuve. If you think about it the other way, then Villeneuve had quite a superior car when he won his WDC and after that he didn't make any results, Kovalainen said to MTV3.

- I don't know if the dig is taken out of context or if it went just like that. I don't know Villeneuve personally. Maybe it was a little stupid statement. You give a feeling of being a sore loser. A WDC is a WDC. They don't give out style-points in F1 so it's all the same how you win the WDC, it is always a tough thing, Kovalainen continues.

Kovalainen reminds that Räikkönen lost more than one championship during his McLaren-years due to his unreliable car.

- In Kimi's case he lost many championships because the car broke down. Kimi would certainly have two or three championships more by driving.

Source: MTV3
Courtesy: Nicole