Alonso crash halts fourth day of Barcelona Formula One test

Carlos Sainz Jr. set the fastest time on the final morning of testing at Barcelona for Toro Rosso, but fellow countryman Fernando Alonso made the headlines with a crash that brought the chequered flag out early.

Alonso went off exiting the high-speed Turn 3 in his McLaren-Honda. Although an ambulance was dispatched to the accident scene, and he was taken to the medical centre, his car returned on the back of a flatbed truck under a black tarpaulin.

Photos on Twitter show him being loaded into the medical helicopter, and he is being airlifted to hospital for further checks.

Sainz set his 1m25.605s fastest time on soft tyres, and was seven tenths clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.

Nico Hulkenberg was third fastest in the 2014 Force India, with Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg fourth. His day started badly when he spun into the gravel at Turn 5, beaching his car not unlike Vettel did yesterday.

Romain Grosjean was sixth quickest in the Lotus-Mercedes, ahead of Daniil Kvyat’s Red Bull and Valtteri Bottas in the Williams.

Barcelona Day Four morning times