FERNANDO ALONSO caused a storm in the desert when flipping his Toyota on a sand dune during the Dakar Rally.
The Formula 1 legend is trying to win the dash across Saudi Arabia but his hopes were hit by launching off a peak and into the air.
A sand dune hop proved too much for Alonso
The Toyota flipped twice as it raced off the peak
Footage showed the car being sent into a dramatic double-roll before crashing down in a plume of sand.
Approaching the drop at a dodgy angle, Alonso seemingly struggles to control his car before sliding off the peak at 90 degrees.
Also in the car was Spanish rally motorcyclist and co-driver Marc Coma, who escaped injury as did his teammate.
It is a credit to the racer’s ballsiness that he immediately raced off into the distance but he soon had to stop and spent just over an hour on repairs.
Alonso then took on the desert without his windshield, which had cracked while two tyres suffered punctures.
To makes matters worse, the crash had come only two kilometres into Wednesday’s mega 534km tenth stage, no doubt leaving the Iberian pair scratching sand out their hair for days once they reach the finish line.
Writing on Instagram, Alonso was positive despite the tumble: “Apart from the initial ‘stumble’ very happy to continue through the stage and finish another day and not waste too much time in general. Now to fix the windshield and go hard tomorrow!”
Going into the stage, the former Ferrari ace was tenth in the Dakar Rally standings with 57-year-old Carlos Sainz, the father of the McLaren F1 ace by the same name, out in front.
But the error sent him hurtling down the leaderboard to sit 55th after the day’s action, over 90 minutes off first place.
The 7,900km event takes the globe’s most ambitious rally drivers across Saudi Arabia and finishes on Friday.
However this year’s event has been marred by the sad death of Portuguese bike racer Paulo Goncalves during the seventh stage.
Paramedics deemed cardiac arrest to be the cause of the 40-year-old’s death, with the subsequent day’s race cancelled for the motorcycle class.
Fernando Alonso crashes into wall during Indy 500 practice
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
