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Spanish GP: McLaren's Alonso hit by Honda failure on FP1 outlap

Honda's hopes of progress in Formula 1 suffered a fresh setback in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso stopped with an engine failure on his outlap.

Having failed to start the Russian GP a fortnight ago, Alonso only got as far as Turn 3 in first practice on Friday morning at Barcelona.

The rear wheels of the Spaniard's McLaren-Honda locked and the car snapped sideways and around, as smoke poured out of the rear end.

Once the MCL32 stopped, fluid was seen pouring out of the bottom of the power unit, with Honda now investigating the oil leak that caused the failure.

The power unit was one that had been used in the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix, as well as Bahrain practice, meaning Alonso will not get a penalty for the engine change - other than energy storage and control electronics - that will now be needed before second practice.

However, depending on which parts are damaged, Alonso could move on to his fourth and final allocated ICE and MGU-H before incurring a penalty.

A full new power unit would also result in his third internal combustion engine and MGU-K.

Stoffel Vandoorne received McLaren's first grid penalty of the season in Russia, after a failure on his car in first practice, which Alonso described as "incredible".

Zdroj: autosport.com