British F1 star Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand prix yesterday to stretch his championship lead.
But relations have broken down between the 22-year-old and team mate Alonso over a controversial incident in qualifying – which Hamilton instigated.
Trackside’s Keith Collantine reckons Britain’s golden boy has shown a ruthless streak.
Wasn’t this all Alonso’s fault?
Not exactly.
Television viewers saw Alonso appear to deliberately hold up Hamilton in qualifying, preventing the Briton from completing his final qualifying lap.
Alonso then set a faster lap to snatch pole position.
But it later emerged that Hamilton had set a chain of events in motion by failing to obey an instruction from his McLaren team.
What did Hamilton do?
As the final phase of qualifying began Hamilton was told to let Alonso by so the Spaniard could complete an extra lap.
Only one of McLaren’s drivers can have the advantage of doing an extra lap in qualifying at each round. So they swap it between their two drivers, and at the Hungaroring it was Alonso’s turn to get the extra lap.
But Hamilton refused to let Alonso past. He later said, “I didn't want to mess up my opportunity by changing places.”
By refusing to let Alonso past, Hamilton stopped him from taking the extra lap he was entitled to. We’ve seen a new ruthless streak in Britain’s golden boy.
What did the stewards say?
Alonso was furious, but Hamilton hadn’t broken any rules.
The stewards declared that Alonso had illegally delayed another driver, and relegated him to sixth on the grid. That put Hamilton on pole position.
Alonso claimed that he hadn’t held Hamilton up deliberately, but admitted that he had known the British driver was there.
What happened in the race?
Hamilton led every lap and won from Raikkonen, with Alonso fourth behind Nick Heidfeld.
That means Hamilton’s lead in the championship has increased from two points to seven over Alonso. There are six races left.
Why did McLaren get punished?
The stewards also penalised McLaren, by not allowing them to score points towards the constructors’ championship in the race.
They did not accept McLaren’s explanation of how it had managed its drivers during the qualifying session.
What now for Hamilton?
Hamilton was reported to have had a blazing, four-letter row with team boss and mentor Ron Dennis on Saturday. But the two have apparently now patched things up.
It was claimed earlier in the year that McLaren had prevented Hamilton from winning the Monaco Grand Prix. But that claim was quashed by the sports’ governing body.
What now for Alonso?
Alonso was spotted going into a meeting with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone on Saturday, and was rumoured to have visited his former team Renault.
All of which points to the suggestion that he might be about to break his McLaren contract for next year and return to his old team.
Alonso suggested earlier in the year that he was not fully comfortable at McLaren. Rumours have suggested that he wanted preferential treatment over Hamilton this year, and not have to fight his team mate as an equal.
Trackside video
The battle for the Indy Racing League title took a horrifying twist at Michigan yesterday as championship leaders Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon were involved in the shocking crash.
Franchitti collided with Dixon’s team mate Dan Wheldon and flew through the air before landing on Dixon’s car.
Several other cars were also eliminated in the carnage. No-one was hurt.
