Mercedes-Benz’s retired big-cheese Jurgen Hubbert, on a rare visit to a grand prix on Sunday, excused Fernando Alonso for his failed overtaking move at the first corner in Spain.
After the Spaniard took to the gravel having bumped into Ferrari’s pole sitter Felipe Massa, Hubbert told reporters: “If he had been successful, it could have totally changed the outcome of the race, so from that perspective … worth a try.”
Team CEO Martin Whitmarsh, meanwhile, ruled out lodging a stewards protest, but world champion Fernando Alonso clearly did not agree.
Unperturbed that Massa was sitting right alongside him in the press conference, the Spaniard cried foul.
“The stewards are up and down. They investigated me last year in Monza when I was half a kilometre in front of the other car and this year they don’t investigate these things too much,” he said.
“I was more than half a car in front.”
Race winner Massa rejected Alonso’s accusation of “aggressive” guilt.
“I was on the inside, I am not going to move, so I don’t understand his point. If somebody was aggressive, it was Fernando.
“In my career I have always been the first one to admit when I made a mistake, but this time don’t tell me I made a mistake,” said Massa.
“Come on, this is racing. This is formula one and this is the first corner.”
The Spanish newspaper Diario As, meanwhile, made no bones about whose side it is on.
Monday’s headline exclaimed: “Massa ruined Alonso’s home victory”.
