Fernando Alonso has accepted responsibility for a crash between himself and the BMW of Nick Heidfeld during the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix.
Alonso had been following Heidfeld for a few laps and felt that the German driver was holding him up Alonso was running on extreme wet weather tyres which, at the time on a very wet track, afforded far more grip than the standard wet tyres. On Lap 14, Alonso tried a clumsy overtaking manoeuvre. As Alonso ran up the inside of Heidfeld, the two cars touched and ruined both of their races. Alonso damaged his front wing and required a new one, whilst Heidfeld ended up with a slow puncture and damage to the side of his car.
After the race, Alonso admitted that his overtaking move had been too optimistic. “It was going well but on Lap 7 I arrived at the Casino corner and I aquaplaned,†Alonso explained to Spanish newspaper AS.
“On the same lap, we had the first safety car. The track was very wet. I had to pit and put on extremes because I had too much aquaplaning. And from that moment onwards, it stopped raining and the track started to dry. We were expecting more water. They we started to lose too much time.
“It was desperation. I tried to overtake Heidfeld in a place where you cannot overtake. In Monaco, you can t just pass anywhere. So it was my fault and from there, we needed a miracle.â€
