Fernando Alonso says he is upset with "sick" online conspiracy theories suggesting he made contact with Kimi Raikkonen before their frightening crash at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Raikkonen lost control of his Ferrari coming out of Turn 2 on the opening lap in Spielberg, swerving into Alonso, whose McLaren ended up perilously positioned on top of the Finn's Ferrari. McLaren's on-board cameras were broken, meaning the FOM broadcast relied on replays from Raikkonen's cockpit and a long shot which did not show the moment before the crash clearly.

Alonso's car narrowly missed Raikkonen's head and hands and the Spaniard thinks it is wrong for people to suggest he caused the crash.

"I was ten metres behind him and in some of the videos it looks like so, I'm clearly behind him," Alonso said. "Kimi after the race said he lost the car and even with that still 15 days later we are talking about the same thing, so people are sick - I don't understand."

That crash left Alonso with a damaged MP4-30 - a setback for McLaren having given the Spaniard an upgraded package for the race. It slightly compromised their test in Austria the following week and Alonso says it had a knock on affect by hurting the engine, though he is hoping to avoid incurring more penalties in Silverstone.

"Well, the engine is the toughest thing because obviously we put a new engine and paid a [25-place grid] penalty in Austria and then we lost the engine and the gearbox in the accident. I know they have some talks with the FIA, the team, to find some common sense so hopefully we found a solution for this loss."

Alonso, who still managed to clock over 100 laps in the post-Austrian GP test, is unsure where McLaren stands in the pecking order coming into this weekend.

"I don't know really, it's a question mark, also for us. The performance of the car after Austria we were not sure. With the new aero package it feels more competitive, the car, but how competitive we don't know because Austria was not our preferred track in terms of layout. It will be interesting to see this weekend if we can, first, finish the race, because after four retirements in my case I would like to see the chequered flag if possible. If we do so I think to see how competitive we are is an answer we need to get this weekend because we don't know if we are 12th, if we are 17th or if we are eighth, so it's an important weekend for us.

"We will put some old engines to avoid some penalties here. That maybe will limit the amount of laps that we can do tomorrow in free practice but we need to find quality laps, not number of laps, especially in free practice, and maximise the performance this weekend and see where we are."