Fernando Alonso has been airlifted to a local hospital in Barcelona following his crash during testing this morning.

Whilst the precise reason for the crash remains unclear, following initial checks at the circuit's medical centre the Spaniard was airlifted to hospital nearby purely as a further precautionary measure.

Though it was initially thought that the red flag at 11:37 was due to another technical failure on the McLaren-Honda, it soon emerged that it was something more serious, circuit official revealing that the MP4-30 had crashed exiting T3 and hit the wall.

"Fernando is conscious and is speaking," the team tweeted. "He has been airlifted to hospital for further checks."

The reason for the delay in discovering that it was a crash rather than a failure is because it happened at what is a blind spot for the circuit's CCTV. The subsequent arrival of an ambulance confirming that it was more serious than originally thought.

The accident comes at the end of another difficult week for the Woking team and its partner Honda. After suffering a problem with a seal on the MGU-K on Thursday, it was feared the team would run only a handful of laps on Friday as it waited on a new component from Honda HQ. However, Alonso actually had a good day, the Spaniard completing the team's best daily mileage tally of the year.

However, things took a turn for the worse yesterday when the replacement seal was itself found to be faulty. An already frustrating day ending with a puncture which left Jenson Button stranded on the pit straight.

Speaking to reporters yesterday, Button said that whilst he isn't expecting McLaren to win in Melbourne - in three weeks - he is confident the MP4-30 will win races this season.

At this moment in time, it's difficult (to put it mildly) to share his optimism.

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