Throwback: Fernando Alonso injured in terrifying Australian GP airborne crash

This year marks 10 years since Fernando Alonso suffered a high-speed shunt at the Australian Grand Prix, ending his race in spectacular fashion.

The season-opening round of the 2016 campaign was disrupted by a red flag on lap 18 when his McLaren-Honda MP4-31 clipped Esteban Gutierrez's Haas at Turn 3, triggering one of the most dramatic accidents in recent F1 history.

The incident occurred as Alonso attempted to overtake the Mexican driver, taking the slipstream as late as possible into the braking point. 

His reaction time proved marginally too slow, and his front-right wheel made contact with Gutierrez's left-rear tyre at approximately 305 kph. The collision sent Alonso's car into the wall at an angle where speed could not be dissipated, generating a peak lateral deceleration of 45G.

After rebounding from the barrier, the McLaren slid towards the gravel trap with three suspension corners destroyed. The gravel dug into the left side of the car, propelling it into a violent barrel roll. 

Alonso's machine rotated approximately 540 degrees, remaining airborne for 0.9 seconds before landing on its rear impact structure with a peak longitudinal force of 20G.

"You are just flying and then you see the sky, the ground, the sky, the ground and you don't know," Alonso said. "Everything [felt like it] happened slower than [it looked on] the outside."

Remarkably, Alonso climbed from the inverted car and walked away, though subsequent medical examination revealed fractured ribs and a collapsed lung. 

The injuries forced him to miss the following race in Bahrain, where Stoffel Vandoorne stood in for his F1 debut. 

Gutierrez, who immediately ran to check on the Spaniard, described the moment as "very, very scary."

The stewards classified the incident as a racing incident with no driver predominantly to blame.