F1 news as Fernando Alonso hit with heavy punishment for causing George Russell horror crash

Fernando Alonso has been heavily penalised by the Australian Grand Prix stewards for causing a crash that resulted in George Russell's Mercedes flipping onto its side.

Russell was chasing Alonso when he lost control of his car, spun off the road, hit a wall and went through a gravel trap before his Mercedes ended up back on the track, lying on its side. Even though there was no contact between the two cars, the incident was investigated by the F1 stewards. Alonso was accused of brake-testing Russell and causing the crash.

The stewards agreed with this accusation, finding Alonso guilty of "potentially dangerous" driving. As a result, he was given a 20-second post-race penalty, which dropped him from sixth to eighth place and added three penalty points to his licence. Alonso explained to the stewards that he intended to approach Turn Six differently, lifting earlier, and with less speed into the corner, to get a better exit, reports the Mirror.

However, Russell called the Aston Martin racer's manoeuvre "erratic". He claimed that the loss of downforce heading into the corner as a result of moving much closer to the back of Alonso's car was what caused his crash.

The stewards discovered that "telemetry shows that Alonso lifted slightly more than 100m earlier than he ever had going into that corner during the race", and that he "also braked very slightly at a point that he did not usually brake and he downshifted at a point he never usually downshifted. He then upshifted again, and accelerated to the corner before lifting again to make the corner."

The impact of Russell's crash wasn't considered when deciding the penalty. The stewards clarified this was because Alonso had the right to change his approach to the corner and