Jolyon Palmer recalls 2017 Italian GP F1 clash that enraged Fernando Alonso and went viral

Ex-Formula 1 driver Jolyon Palmer has shared an amusing story about an incident at the 2017 Italian Grand Prix that enraged Fernando Alonso and went viral. 

Renault driver Palmer and Alonso, who at the time raced for McLaren, clashed at Monza while battling for position under braking at the second chicane, leading to Palmer leaving the circuit and staying ahead. 

Alonso was left incensed with Palmer when he refused to hand back the position, and took issue with the stewards’ decision to only hand the Briton a five-second penalty. 

The furious two-time world champion repeatedly sounded off about the incident with Palmer for the rest of the race in a series of angry radio messages that ended up going viral. 

Palmer would later retire, much to Alonso’s delight. When informed of his rival’s misfortune, the Spaniard gleefully declared it as “karma”. However, Alonso’s afternoon would also end in retirement. 

“You know what the funny thing is with that, number one is that he had no straightline speed. This was peak McLaren-Honda,” Palmer said as he recalled the story on the F1 Nation podcast. 

“I was trying to come past him, I think I had a pit lane start or something. He was obviously defending like a tiger so in the end I got half way round the outside of him and I cut the chicane. 

“I would say he forced me off. The stewards on that occasion did not agree with me and they gave me a five second penalty. You know what, I didn’t even care because I pulled away from him and pitted and came out ahead. 

“It was such a tiny blip in my race, this moment passing Fernando and getting a five-second penalty, I’d forgotten about it. About 15 laps later, I’ve retired with a hydraulic problem. 

“So I’m out the car, I’ve gone to do my media stuff ‘ah another tough day, reliability is no good’, all the rest of it. I’ve got an ice cream out of the back of the canteen. Sunday afternoon, I’m like ‘I’ve worked hard, I’m going to treat myself’. 

“I’m literally munching through a magnum and the TV screen is on in Renault and I just hear Fernando ‘where is Palmer?’ I’ve got an ice cream in my mouth like ‘what, he’s really been affected by this’. I didn’t give a single monkeys about it.

“I couldn’t believe that he was engaged as he was. But it was everything about Fernando Alonso that such a silly, meaningless thing for about 14th position had really, really got under his skin.”

Asked if he and Alonso ever spoke about the incident, Palmer replied: “No. You know what, we’d already had like an hour-long drivers’ meeting in Monza because he’d forced me off the road in Belgium the week before. 

“There was a big hoo har. All the drivers were there, it was like who is on Palmer’s side, who is on Alonso’s side? Is this fair, is this not? It was one of those long ones were everyone decided they were going to wade in on whether it was basically fair to be shoved off the road. 

“After that we had the next one and I was like ‘I’m just going to cut the chicane. Let’s see if that works’ and I didn’t it up. I didn’t fancy getting on the wrong side of him, after that.”