Alonso Survives Plane Incident

Fernando Alonso will not be going back to Kenya any time soon, we presume. After spending the New Year with Renault boss Flavio Briatore in a Kenyan resort, the 2-time world champion went through some really tough times when preparing to head back home. The plane he was in made contact with a building at take-off and damaged one wing.

However, it seems that nobody was hurt as a result of the little incident. All aboard Alonso's private jet, including his wife Rosario, her sister along with her boyfriend and crew, did not suffer any important injuries. According to Spanish media sources (mainly sports newspaper As), only a female pilot was in a state of minor shock.

“Fernando indeed had a plane incident yesterday. His aircraft touched a building and damaged its wing. Fernando and his family are fine. They will be flying back to Europe today. It's apparently not as serious as some people are trying to make it sound,” autosport.com quoted a Renault spokesperson as saying after the incident in Kenya.

The Spaniard was planning to return to Europe from his New Year vacation in Kenya, but was not joined by Briatore on his way back. The Italian will leave the African country later this week, as his visit to Kenya also included the sponsoring of local football team FC Zege with the necessary equipment for the upcoming season.

Renault and Alonso are to reveal their new car for 2009 during the on-track testing session at Algarve two weeks from now. Renault will be joined by most F1 teams in delivering their new 2009-spec machineries at the Portuguese circuit, except for Force India, Toro Rosso and Red Bull Racing.

Renault will also join BMW, Williams, Toyota, Red Bull, Toro Rosso and Force India in revealing their 2009-spec cars during testing and not through the by-now traditional press conference events.