Fernando Alonso said on Thursday, in no uncertain terms, that Honda’s reliability issues were ‘completely unacceptable’.

Well he just went from the frying pan and into the fire this morning on his first lap of free practice.

The Spanish driver was certainly hoping for more than just a few corners of running in the first session for his home Grand Prix.

Alas, trouble hit the McLaren-Honda at the outset.

Alonso had just gone at to join the proceedings when he stopped at the exit of Turn 3 in a cloud of smoke and liquid pouring out of the back end of his McLaren MCL32!

A replay showed that the Spaniard had spun on his approach, probably as a result of another dismal failure of the Honda power unit.

Alonso is still within his four-unit allocation with regard to his power unit, which is the one that was used in Australia, China and in Bahrain practice. A subsequent engine change would therefore still keep him away from the penalty box.

The two-time world champion said yesterday that he would decide his future in September. He may make up his mind a lot sooner…

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