Alonso Wins Controversial F1 Race

 

Formula One was engulfed in a fresh ‘team orders’ row on Sunday night after Ferrari were found guilty of bringing the sport into disrepute by ordering Felipe Massa to stand aside and let Fernando Alonso win Sunday’s German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

 

The Italian team were fined $100,000 (R740000) on the spot, with the matter also referred to the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council “for further consideration” under Article 151c of its Sporting Code, which basically gives the governing body carte blanche to sanction Ferrari as it sees fit.

Punishments could range from a slap on the wrist to exclusion from the championship, with a hearing not expected to take place until after this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, during the sport’s August break.

The verdict capped a controversial day in Germany in which the stewards also mulled over the legality of the front wings on the Ferrari and Red Bull cars, although these were later cleared.

It was an uncomfortable victory for Ferrari, who should have been celebrating their first one-two since the season-opening race in Bahrain. But they ended up defending their Machiavellian tactics. In an ideal world it would have been Massa celebrating his first win since Brazil in 2008. The Brazilian’s dejection at the end — he looked utterly miserable in the post-race press conference — was all the more poignant for the fact that yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of his near-fatal accident in Budapest when he was hit on the helmet by a metal spring and spent almost three days in an induced coma.

Capitalising on Sebastian Vettel’s poor start from pole and the German’s subsequent preoccupation with Alonso, Massa, starting third, passed the pair on the outside and led the race going into the first corner. Although Alonso generally had the better pace, and indeed briefly passed Massa on lap 21, the Spaniard could not make the move stick and voiced his frustrations to the pit wall, and the wider world, saying: “This is ridiculous.”

Ferrari were faced with a difficult decision and eventually decided to back Alonso, who led Massa by 31 points going into the race. On lap 47 Massa’s race engineer, Rob Smedley, came on the radio to deliver the crushing news: “OK, so, Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?”

The whole world understood it. Two laps later Massa allowed the Spaniard through on the exit to turn six, whereupon a sympathetic Smedley came on again: “Good lad. Just stick with it now. Sorry.”

It may not have been as blatant a case of team orders as the incident at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix when Rubens Barrichello pulled over on the finish straight to allow Michael Schumacher past, but it was fooling no one. Eddie Jordan, commenting on the BBC, described the incident as “theft”. “They stole from us the chance of having a wheel-to-wheel contest between the drivers,” he said. “Ferrari should be ashamed. For me, it is cheating and these two cars should be excluded.”

Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, was also scathing. “The regulations are pretty clear,” he said. “Team orders are not allowed.”

Indeed. Article 39.1 of the FIA’s Sporting Regulations, introduced in the wake of the incident in Austria in 2002, states: “Team orders which interfere with the race result will be prohibited.”

Ferrari and Massa later tried to claim, half-heartedly in the case of the Brazilian, that the idea had been the driver’s. “I’m very professional and I’ve showed today how professional I am,” Massa said during a heated press conference. “You have your job to do and I have mine.”

Alonso, by contrast, was unapologetic. Asked if he ranked this result up there with Singapore 2008, the infamous race in which Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jnr crashed his car to help his then team-mate win. “I think you have a very strong result from Ferrari today, one and two, a very strong performance all weekend and if the final thought of the weekend is your question it’s because maybe you didn’t see the whole practice, qualifying and the race,” he said.

Not good enough. Pressed on whether he could understand why some fans might feel cheated, Alonso made reference to Red Bull’s episode in Turkey when their drivers crashed into one another while fighting for the race lead. “Today Ferrari has 42 points [sic; 43] in their pocket, so I think it’s what we are here for,” he noted.

The end justifies the means, in other words. It did not wash with his audience, many of whom booed and hissed, and clearly it did not wash with the stewards either.

It was not supposed to happen like this. Vettel, the darling of the thousands of fans who packed Hockenheim, was meant to emerge from Michael Schumacher’s shadow to press his claims for the world title. He again choked on the start line and finished third, thereby going level on points with Webber in the standings.

It was another spot of plundering in Spain’s bountiful sporting summer. Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon, the footballers in South Africa, Alberto Contador in the Tour de France and now Alonso, back in the F1 hunt.

The sport needed him back. Even tarnished by controversy.

Courtesy of The Telegraph

Jul 26, 2010 | Categories: F1, Slider, The Others | Tags: Controversial, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, fine, German Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher, Overtake, Red Bull, Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel, Team Orders | Leave A Comment »