FERNANDO ALONSO has blasted Lewis Hamilton – saying the Brit escaped a penalty in Saturday’s sprint race “because he is not Spanish”.
Alonso said Hamilton “arrived like a bull” and then “ruined” other drivers’ races after they collided at the opening corner during the short sprint race at the Miami GP.
Alonso picked up a puncture in his Aston Martin while his teammate Lance Stroll suffered damage and McLaren’s Lando Norris was punted out of the race completely after Hamilton’s aggressive start caused chaos.
The stewards noted the incident but Hamilton escaped without punishment, although he finished eighth and later demoted to 16th due to a post-race penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
Alonso, who had a bust-up with Hamilton when they were teammates at McLaren in 2008, said: “Lewis was on the inside, a little bit out of control, but I guess they won’t decide anything, because he is not Spanish.
“But he ruined the race for a few people, especially Norris, who had a very fast car and he was out in that incident.”
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Hamilton went on to have a ding-dong battle with Kevin Magnussen before being hit with a drive-through penalty for going too fast in the pitlane, triggering a sanction of 20 seconds that was bolted on to his time.
Hamilton was in the wars after fighting with the Haas’ driver, who admitted to using “silly tactics” to keep Hamilton behind him.
But his own error in the pitlane – when all the cars were told to drive through the pitlane due to a first lap incident – cost him and he was demoted from eighth to 16th.
Hamilton said: “I feel OK. It’s obviously tough battling out there. Of course turn one wasn’t intentional, to be touching with anyone, but everyone’s pushing as much as possible.
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“I went for a gap but I think those guys went wide and then came back across, so that’s kind of where we connected.
“And then after that was just fighting, trying to get past those Haas cars.
“It was really tough battling, but I just enjoyed that I was racing. I wasn’t going backwards at least!
“But the penalty, definitely it sucks, but it was only worth one point.”
Magnussen racked up a whopping 35 seconds in penalties and will get a ticking off from the stewards as a result.
He said: “All the penalties were well deserved – no doubt about it. But I had to play the game again.
“I was protecting well from Lewis because I had the DRS from Nico [Hulkenberg] and I had good pace.
“I started using these stupid tactics which I don’t like doing, but the end of the day I did my job as a team player and Nico scored his points because I got that gap for him so Lewis and [Yuki] Tsunoda couldn’t catch him.
Inside track on Hamilton’s life
LEWIS HAMILTON has driven his way into pole position as Formula One’s most prolific winner.
“Not the way I like to go racing at all but it was what I had to do today.”
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen won the sprint race and will start on pole position for today’s (SUN) Miami Grand Prix.
Verstappen has now taken all six pole positions this season and has a 27 point lead in the championship.
He said: “It definitely feels a little bit more under control, which I was looking for. Hopefully that helps us out tomorrow.
“We know what we, and I, did wrong at the start [in the Sprint]. I’m sure if I do my things correctly, then it should be alright.”
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Charles Leclerc will line up in second while Carlos Sainz will start third for the Ferrari team. Sergio Perez qualified in fourth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Hamilton again was out-qualified by his Mercedes teammate George Russell with the Merc duo in seventh and eighth place respectively.
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Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
