United States GP: Fernando Alonso involved in scary crash, loses points after Haas protest

World champion Max Verstappen on Sunday not only recorded his 13th victory of the year but also earned the Red Bull F1 team their constructors championship. Former champions Lewis Hamilton finished second in the United States GP, while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc came third. The major talking point during the US GP was the nasty collision between Alpine's Fernando Alonso and Aston martin driver Lance Stroll.

Formula 1: Fernando Alonso avoids disaster with Lance Stroll 

Following the end of a Safety Car period brought by Valtteri Bottas’ retirement, Alonso was behind Stroll and tried to pass the Aston Martin down the back straight. However, Stroll moved across to the left at the last moment which sent Fernando Alonso's car over the top of his car. Following the collision, Alonso's car did a wheelie and nearly went airborne. He hit the barrier but luckily the impact with the wall came on the tyres and after a skid, he was able to return back to the pits. While Alonso continued to race, the collision marked an end for Stroll after his car spun off the track into the barrier on the other side before his front left tyre came off the car and rolled down the circuit.

Was Fernando Alonso punished for the accident with Lance Stroll?

Despite the collision at United States GP, Two-time Formula 1 champion Alonso managed to finish in the seventh spot. However, according to the information on the Formula 1 website,  Haas had launched a post-race protest against Alonso’s car on technical grounds. The stewards deemed Alonso’s Alpine A522 unsafe condition following the crash with a 30-second post-race penalty imposed on Alonso (a 10-second mid-race stop-go penalty no longer being feasible), dropping him from P7 to P15. As a result of the drop in the rankings, Alonso was unable to score points for Alpine.

United States GP highlights

Verstappen’s race was nearly undone when a rare slow pit stop for 11 seconds lost to a tricky change of the front left tire — dropped him out of the lead and well behind Hamilton. However, Verstappen chased down Hamilton and passed him on lap 50 of 56. Verstappen then had to hold off the pestering Hamilton through the final laps, and both drivers were warned not to exceed track limits that would draw a penalty. Verstappen's win in US GP sees him tie Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013) for most in a season with three races still to go.