Heidfeld angry with Alonso over crash

An irate Nick Heidfeld criticised Fernando Alonso after the pair collided near the end of Friday’s second practice session in Valencia, accusing the Spaniard of causing an “unnecessary” accident.

Alonso attempted to pass Heidfeld on the tricky turn-in point to the final corner, but the BMW driver had earmarked the same piece of road for himself and the two cars made hard contact, launching Heidfeld’s F1.09 into the air and bringing his day to a premature conclusion.

“Such a crash is really unnecessary during free practice,” said Heidfeld, who labelled Alonso’s move “plain stupid” over the team radio.

“I saw him in the rear view mirror locking up his wheels and tried to open the door for him, but he went straight into me and I almost rolled.”

Alonso contended that the collision was merely a ‘racing incident’, and said Heidfeld had caught him by surprise by turning into his path rather than heading into the pit lane as his very wide line indicated he would.

“Unfortunately these things happen in motor racing,” said the Renault driver, who went on to set the day’s fastest time.

“It was in my opinion a normal incident.

“I thought he was coming into the pits as he was going very wide in the last corner and was in the pit lane entry.

“Then suddenly he turned in and he drove the circuit just to have a nice out-lap, to start the next lap a little bit quicker.

“That surprised me completely and so we touched each other. He didn’t see me and we touched, but it was nothing more than that.”

Although he arrived the corner with his right-front wheel heavily locked up, Alonso insisted he would have made it round safely had Heidfeld not turned in on him.

“I locked up the right-front and you see the smoke, but the data shows that we were slower than any other laps,” he said.

Source: ITV