Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll involved in scary crash at F1 race

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were involved in a scary crash on Sunday in Formula One’s U.S. Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

The crash occurred on Lap 22 along the fastest part of the track. Alonso was trying to pass Stroll on his left when their tires clipped and Alonso got airborne and drove a few feet on his back two tires. Alonso managed to save his vehicle from being damaged further, but Stroll was knocked out of the race.

Neither driver was hurt in the wreck. The two were battling for seventh and eighth positions at the time.

Stroll said after his day was over he gave Alonso “plenty of room” to make a pass.

“I mean, I definitely moved late, but there was a big difference in speed,” Stroll said, via Motorsport.com. “I was judging more or less, kind of picking where he was behind me. But it’s not like I hit him on the side of his car. The impact is still his front wing to the rear of my car.

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“I gave him plenty of room on the left of the track, so it’s not like I squeezed him or anything like that against a wall. He could have moved earlier and went more to the left. He didn’t have to get so close to me either. So, there’s a lot of different ways you could look at the incident. It was a shame. It was close wheel-to-wheel racing and unfortunately just made contact.”

Alonso finished in seventh place despite the crash; however, he was given a 30-second penalty that dropped him to 15th. The Alpine driver’s mirror had detached during the race, and Haas decided to launch a protest. The FIA, which governs F1, determined Alonso was not driving in a safe condition.

Alpine said it was “disappointed” with the decision.

Max Verstappen ended up with the win at Austin – the 13th win of the season for him.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.