F1 champion’s car sets on FIRE at Imola after SHOCKING C…read more
Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix drama: Alonso’s Aston Martin briefly ablaze yet still charges on to the chequered flag
Fernando Alonso’s roller-coaster 2025 season took another dramatic twist at Imola on Sunday when the front-left brake assembly of his Aston Martin AMR25 ignited in the pit-lane exit. What at first looked like the start of a race-ending catastrophe lasted only a handful of heart-stopping seconds, but it summed up the mix of promise and frustration that has characterised the Spaniard’s year so far.
A weekend that started on the front foot
After two non-finishes in Australia and China, Aston Martin arrived in Italy determined to reset its campaign. A raft of aerodynamic and suspension updates—most visibly a slimmed-down engine cover and revised floor edges—seemed to do the trick. Alonso and team-mate Lance Stroll both steered the green cars into Q3 on Saturday, validating the factory’s intensive work at Silverstone.
Alonso’s P5 grid slot was his best start of 2025 to date, and with the Imola circuit rewarding high-downforce efficiency, team strategists believed a top-five finish was realistic. From lights-out, Alonso latched onto the tail of George Russell’s Mercedes, the two champions trading fastest sector times as they hustled towards Variante Alta. Crucially, the Aston Martin displayed the kind of stability under braking that had been lacking in the season’s opening fly-away rounds.
The pit-stop spark that lit a fire
The first—and only—pit stop came on lap 19 when Alonso dived in for a switch from medium to hard tyres. The stop itself was neat, timed at 2.7 seconds, but as the car accelerated back towards the blend line, TV cameras and marshals simultaneously spotted orange tongues of flame licking out from the left-front wheel.
Initial telemetry indicated that the brake calliper temperature had spiked above 1,000 °C—probably the result of hot debris lodged in the cooling duct as the tyre blankets were peeled away. With carbon discs operating close to their limits, any momentary airflow blockage can turn glowing red surfaces into open flames.
“Fire, front-left, but I keep going,” Alonso radioed with his trademark calm. Engineers acknowledged, instructing him to perform gentle weaving to force airflow through the ducts. Within half a lap, the blaze had snuffed itself out, leaving only scorch marks on the wheel rim and a faint plume of brake dust trailing the car.
Regrouping for the second stint
If the incident rattled Alonso, he never showed it. Settling onto the new hard compound, he carved through mid-field traffic with measured aggression, dispatching Yuki Tsunoda’s RB and the Haas of Nico Hülkenberg in successive laps. Sector-three micro-timing revealed that, despite the earlier overheating, his brake performance remained within two per cent of pre-fire levels—testament to the resilience of modern carbon-carbon systems.
Up front, Russell, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez were locked in their own tactical duel, which opened the door for the recovering Aston Martin. By lap 44 Alonso had narrowed the gap to Russell to under two seconds, his pace hovering in the low 1:19s. A minor slide at Acque Minerali—possibly a lingering side-effect of a slightly glazed front disc—ultimately ended the podium chase, but P6 at the flag still represented both his and the team’s first points haul of 2025.
Bigger picture: hope rekindled
Team principal Mike Krack was quick to praise both driver and crew. “The upgrades delivered the lap-time we predicted in CFD, and Fernando managed a potentially race-ending scare with all his experience,” he said post-race. Engineers will nonetheless strip the brake assembly for metallurgical checks before Monaco, where repeated heavy stops into the harbour chicane could expose any hidden damage.
For Alonso, who turned 43 earlier this year, the result reinforces his belief that Aston Martin can re-emerge as a podium threat. “We showed genuine pace—not just on one lap, but across a full stint,” he told Spanish TV. “The fire was dramatic on video, but inside the car I knew if the flames were only on the calliper, fresh air would kill them. We race on.”
Next up is the tight-and-twisty Monte Carlo street circuit—fertile ground for a driver renowned for audacious late-braking moves. With confidence restored and points finally on the board, Alonso and Aston Martin head to the principality knowing their season has, quite literally, been forged in fire—and may now be ready to ignite in all the right ways.
