European Grand Prix: Fernando Alonso Blames Lewis Hamilton for a Bad Show
Sebastian Vettel won the Valencia GP on a week where Ferrari was tipped to offer stern resistance to the Red Bulls. Fernando Alonso, the Ferrari driver, was quite upset after the race, and said that his former teammate Lewis Hamilton was to blame for his bad race. Alonso was referring to an incident that took place in the race when the safety car came out.
McLaren’s Hamilton was penalised when he overtook the safety car for a brief moment, but he did well to secure the 2nd spot on the podium despite serving his drive through penalty.
Alonso said it was totally unfair; all of the drivers except Hamilton respected the rules, and made sure that they did not overtake while the yellow flag was out, but Hamilton gained an unfair advantage.
Hamilton was insistent that was not looking to take any advantage from that move, and it was just a mistake. After the race, when asked about the incident, Hamilton said he did not remember much about it.
The 2008 F1 champion said that when he was coming around Turn One, and as soon as he got to the safety car line, he saw that the safety car was almost alongside him. He added that he thought he had passed the safety car line so he continued on his way.
When Hamilton was told about the anger of Alonso, Lewis said that he is not bothered by his reaction, and Alonso should focus more on his own performance rather than blaming others. The two seem to be sharing the same mutual animosity which they had when they were teammates at McLaren.
Hamilton went on to say that all he does is focus on what he does, so Alonso should also do the same.
The youngest F1 world champion said that he only reacted on his instincts when the safety cars came out following the accident of Webber. He said that he was not even aware that he had been penalised; it was only till the later part of the race when the pit crew informed him of the penalty decision.
By that time, Hamilton had taken such a big lead ahead (courtesy the safety car incident) that when he finally did serve the drive through penalty, he did not lose a single place, as he went and came out of the pits at number 2, behind Vettel.
Hamilton added that he thought his general pace was a lot better than a lot of the people behind him, which enabled him to maintain the 2nd place.
The British driver said that he is very competitive and maybe that is the reason why he was able to get the 2nd place after all the chaos.
However, the Ferrari driver Alonso was adamant that the safety car incident was the moment that enabled Hamilton to have an undue advantage.
The 2 time world champion Alonso said that what Hamilton did was not fair and it totally ruined the race.
The Spaniard said that he only managed 9th while Hamilton got 2nd; that is clear evidence of how much he gained from that little advantage.
Alonso was eventually promoted to number 8 after post-race investigations revealed that a number of drivers were driving too fast while the safety car was out.
Alonso, who was racing on his home circuit, said it is a shame, because the fans that came out to watch a fair race were denied of that because of one man. He went on to say that he has never seen anyone overtake the safety car, and even little kids in the stands who came to watch the race would know that you are not supposed to do that. He said that when the safety car came out, the difference between him and Hamilton was only one meter, so it does not take a genius to understand how much Hamilton gained from that.
The two drivers do have a history of bad blood between them ever since they were teammates at McLaren, and finger pointing is quite normal, but accusing one another of cheating time and again is simply not on. Looking as a neutral’s point of view, yes Hamilton did get some undue advantage, but how much it helped him and how much was it his own ability that got him the 2nd place, we may never know.
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