Alonso "surprised" by claims he parked healthy car

Conspiracy theories surfaced after the Spa event about the real reason for Alonso retiring from the race, with Honda having been clear that nothing was wrong.

The talk was further fuelled by the fact that Alonso had asked shortly before he stopped whether or not there was a chance of rain, to which his team replied no.

Asked ahead of the Italian GP about the idea he had given up in the race because there was no prospect of a good result, he said: "I read that, and I am surprised when I read that.

"It seems that people forgot I am racing here, three years, fighting for Q1s, giving my maximum at the start, pushing the car in Hungary in Q1 uphill just to get another run in Q2, and trying to race with a broken rib in Bahrain.

"When I read that, I think people are not very concentrated on the real things that happen in Spa. There was much more action in front of me than behind."

Sensor issues

Pushed on what the reason for him quitting in Spa was, if there was nothing wrong with the engine, Alonso said that he had stopped because there was concern about a potential failure looming.

"I had a few issues on the power unit, in the three or four laps before the retirement," he said.

"I had this a couple of times before where some sensors starting failing, some things started feeling wrong and it went immediately to engine blow-up.

"This time, after having those first problems, we retired the car and they checked the whole engine. It seems everything is fine on the look they did.

"We will try to fit that engine tomorrow in FP2. If it blows up we will change it, obviously. If it keeps holding, probably we keep using it."

Spec 3.7 ready

While the Spa engine is planned to be used in FP2, Alonso has confirmed that an upgraded power unit will be run in FP1 – which will mean grid penalties.

"I think it is 3.7...the name," he said. "When I arrived this morning I asked what was the situation. They said it was still undecided if we will use this race to get the new engine or not this one.

"And then now, ten minutes ago, they decided to change the engine and get the penalty here."