Alonso Wins In Controversial Fashion

Australia – Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso has vaulted back into world title contention after taking victory in the German Formula One Grand Prix at Hockenheim – but his win was not without controversy.

Starting on the softer of Bridgestone’s Potenza tyre compounds, the Spaniard was forced to play second fiddle to teammate Felipe Massa for much of the race. However, the Brazilian appeared to be told by his team to move over late in the race to let Alonso take the lead and the victory.

After the race, Ferrari were fined US$100,000 for ‘breaching sporting regulations’ by the sport’s governing body, the FIA.

Massa later denied he had been the victim of team orders saying that it was his decision to let Alonso past.
“I didn’t have a good pace on the hard tyres and Fernando was quicker,” he said.

“You always need to know that we are working for the team and there were no team orders in the race. I made the decision because Fernando was faster than me.”

Pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel took third place for Red Bull ahead of the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and Australia’s Mark Webber.

Bridgestone’s Motorsport engineers were delighted with the performance of the various Potenza tyre compounds used during the weekend.

“I believe that the race was a good illustration of the strength of our development engineers in Japan,” said Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone’s Director of Motorsport Tyre Development.

“These tyres were designed before the start of the season, and we have many changes such as the narrower front tyres, and no more refuelling meaning heavier cars. Despite this, our engineers have produced tyres capable of working well with this season’s cars, even when we try an extreme allocation as we did here.”

The next race is in Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix on August 1st.

Source: http://www.bridgestone.com.au/media/articles/motorsport_26Jul10.aspx

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Alonso Wins In Controversial Fashion

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