Manama, Bahrain - McLaren's Fernando Alonso has been ruled out of the Bahrain Grand Prix after revealing he’d broken a couple of ribs and suffered a lung injury in a crash in Formula One's Australian season-opener on March 20.
Alonso told reporters at the Sakhir circuit that he had done all he could to be in a condition to race on Sunday, but respected the doctors' decision. He said he’d undergone scans in Spain last week that had revealed a 'small pneumothorax' on the lung as well as rib fractures.
"Because of that, with the G-forces, there is a risk that the fracture could move into the lung," he explained.
The governing International Automobile Federation has requested a repeat chest scan before the Chinese Grand Prix and the results will be analysed before allowing him to race there.
"It's not 100 percent," Alonso said of his chances of competing in the third round of the 21 race season in Shanghai on 17 April 17.
Alonso’s absence from the second race of the season paves the way for the team's Belgian reserve Stoffel Vandoorne to make his race debut.
Vandoorne, the 2015 GP2 champion and a rising star in the sport, is McLaren's official stand-in and will fly back from Japan, where he is racing in a domestic series, in time for first practice on Friday, with Alonso staying on to lend his support.
Alonso's crash in Melbourne, after colliding with Mexican Esteban Gutierrez's Haas in the 20 March season opener, provided a moment of high drama with the race red-flagged before an eventual re-start. He was fortunate to escape serious injury, climbing out of his wrecked car without assistance and released from the medical centre after precautionary checks.
Alonso was to have raced in Bahrain with a new chassis and replacement power unit after Honda said there was little to salvage. McLaren revealed this week that the impact in the flying crash had been sufficient to crack Alonso's moulded seat, although it played down the significance of that.
"The fact that the seat was cracked but not broken means it did its job well," said a spokesman. "It flexed helpfully, as it was designed to do, and it efficiently absorbed a lot of the energy of the accident."
Former champion McLaren, which has not won a race since 2012, is fighting back from its worst ever season and appeared to be more competitive in Australia despite failing to score points. Alonso had missed the 2015 Australian Grand Prix after a heavy crash in pre-season testing in Barcelona left him suffering from concussion.