F

ernando Alonso walked away from a devastating barrel roll following a collision with Esteban Gutierrez during the 2016 Australian GP — at the same corner which two decades before outed Martin Brundle. Alonso was running immediately behind Gutierrez as the pair approached Turn 3 at speed, but made contact with the rear of the Mexican’s car as they entered the braking zone, sending the Spaniard into the left-hand wall. As Gutierriez spun to a stop, Alonso was launched into the air, with his McLaren monocoque eventually coming to rest, upside down, against the tire wall. Despite the severity of the accident, Alonso materialized unscathed from his pulverized car with something approaching nonchalance, though that was not the way the Spaniard was thinking at the time. Fernando later reflected that he was “lucky” to have escaped unhurt, saying: “It was a big, big crash. It was a scary moment. You see the sky, the ground, the sky, you want to stop.” He added, “I’m thankful for the safety of these cars…. I’m alive thanks to the job of the last 10 to 15 years of Formula One.” Fernando was taken to the medical center for a check-up and shortly released. Wow!