Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso suffered from a bizarre moment during the second practice session in Bahrain when his steering wheel detached from his Aston Martin.
Just two laps into the session, Alonso's steering wheel display went blank and moments later, the wheel detached from the steering column. Over the team radio, he exclaimed:
“Change the steering wheel,” Alonso said. “There’s a problem with the steering wheel; it’s switching off.”
Addressing the odd moment with the media following practice, the Spanish driver explained: "Yeah, the car [was] not working, and I could not shift gears at one point, so yeah, I had a dash off.
"So, I could not communicate with the team either, and yeah, in the last corner the wheel was off. So yeah, we realised that maybe the steering column of the wheel or something had a problem. The mechanics quickly changed the parts and everything was fine.
"So yeah, a moment there, but thanks to everyone in the garage to fix it quite fast."
Aston Martin shared the following update at the time: "We had a steering wheel issue on Fernando’s car which we are looking to resolve in the garage. Upon further investigation, we’re changing parts of the steering system on Fernando’s car."
Alonso was able to get back out to complete the session, during which he placed 15th fastest on the timesheet. Unfortunately, the 43-year-old is still not feeling optimistic about the weekend.
"I think it's going to be a tough weekend, unfortunately, we seem not to have the pace before coming here," he said.
"The characteristics of Bahrain was a little bit of a concern for us, for our package, and yeah, probably we confirm today that we are not competitive. It's going to be a tough weekend, but we will try to learn.
"We will try to push, and we are not giving up."
