Alonso was pitting to investigate a brake problem – caused by a visor tear-off in his brake duct – that had already caused him to overshoot the first corner, but found he had a major failure as he entered his pitbox.

Fortunately, his front jackman jumped out of the way and avoided being hit by the car.

“I was worried for him after I saw that I had no [brake] pedal,” said Alonso. “He was very quick reacting, and luckily we didn’t have any more damage or injuries. The brake failure was one lap before the end, I missed the first corner and then I asked on the radio what to do.

“They told me to come back and stop to have a look to see if something was stuck, but it deteriorated and they told me to switch it off.

“Obviously we need to investigate the problem, so there’s an area we need to reinforce there.”