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Alonso, Hamilton differ on incident

The atmosphere at the McLaren motorhome was slightly more tense than usual today, when Fernando Alonso found himself repeatedly answering the same questions about his part in the pitstop hold-up that cost teammate Lewis Hamilton a final flying lap

And the tension certainly wasn't eased when Hamilton himself joined the media briefing to give his interpretation of the events.

Following up Ron Dennis's explanation of how the pitstop hold-up happened as a result of Hamilton ignoring earlier team orders, which in turn put the drivers out of sequence, Alonso was grilled on the reasons why he was stationary for ten seconds while Hamilton was waiting behind.

"You have already seen 11 races with this," Alonso said. "Sometimes we stop for 10 seconds, sometimes 20, sometimes 45 - like the first one (today), because of the traffic and everything.

"[This happened] I think first of all because of the first pitstop, which was a 45-second delay - they were holding me up for 40, and then the [problem with] the [tyre] blanket, so 45-50 seconds.

"I was completely out of schedule. I should have been in front of the group, in front of everybody, trying to do the lap, and I think it was very difficult to manage where I was and for how long they needed to stop me in the stop, because I was not in the perfect place to position myself with the traffic."

Alonso dismissed rumours that he stayed in the pits because his personal trainer told him to stay put.

"If you understand a little bit, it is impossible for the physio to have the ability to speak with us on the radio," the Spaniard responded. "Everybody else would hear as well.

"I crossed the line with two seconds, I think, before the end of the session, so I nearly... I tried to completely the out-lap quickly, otherwise I would have had the same problem that Lewis did. So I was in a risky position as well.

"It is impossible for anyone to calculate these two seconds, or something. It's just, as Ron said, everything was a little bit out of control. It is not a possibility to think in a difficult way."

When he was asked yet again why he would stay stationary at the pit box for ten seconds, Alonso snapped: "Again! Four times! I told you four times already: we have had 11 races. If you watch qualifying, both cars stop and go out when the team say to go out. They count down over the radio, and when they get to zero you release the clutch and you go."

Hamilton came in at that point, apologising for the delay ("I was watching GP2 and didn't realise we had this"), and soon after made it clear that he had his own view of the incident.

"I felt that the team did a good enough job to get me into the pitlane first, so I went as quick as I could," he said. "There was easily enough time to do another lap.

"I came in and I took my time - the team told me, 'take your time, because Fernando is doing his pitstop, but he'll be gone quite soon'. I could see on the screen that he was still not done, so I slowly, slowly pulled up, and eventually I saw the lollipop went up, and he didn't go.

"I just sat there, I put it into neutral and I just waited, and saw the time fly by. I think from coming in and waiting, I lost something like half a minute.

"But you know, I am still satisfied with the job that we've all done here. The team did a great job, as always."

Asked about the team orders he ignored earlier on, Hamilton said: "I was at the end of the pitlane; there was me, Fernando and Kimi. Just with the situation, I didn't want to disrupt the opportunity that I had.

"I didn't want to mess up my opportunity by changing places or whatever there was to do, and be open to being overtaken by Kimi and losing my place.

"So then it would have not allowed me to get an extra lap. So that's why we had the disagreement, because I didn't agree with it and I didn't do what they wanted me to do."

Hamilton, though, rebuffed the suggestion that Alonso's wait in the pit box was normal.

"That's not something we do," he said. "We obviously try to manage it as well as possible, whether it is me who comes in and Fernando has to queue. You come in, the team do a fantastic job of getting the tyres on, and you're out as soon as possible to do your lap. You don't wait for traffic.

"When you are in the pitlane they maybe tell you to slow down for five seconds so that the Williams can go past, and then you go out; you've got clean air. They don't tell you to wait on the spot."

When reporters pointed out to the two that they seem to have a disagreement on the incident, Alonso interjected: "I think there is disagreement because that is what you want.

"Ron spent the first five minutes explaining to you all the truth, and he was, I think, quite honest with everybody.

"You asked him a couple of times about the second pitstop, he told you again that it was a countdown monitored by the engineers, but you do not want to hear that. So that is the only disagreement.

"My engineer always monitors me on the radio with the countdown, as Ron said 10 minutes ago. I repeat. And that's the way I have done the last 11 qualifyings."

He wasn't helped much, however, by Hamilton: "If you look at the last 11 qualifyings, if you are on your own and you are not impeding your teammate, then perhaps you can wait a couple of seconds. Not half a minute."

And, again going back to his own part in the event, Hamilton reiterated his position: "The strategy was to let Fernando past, as Ron has obviously told you. But as I said, I was at the end of the pitlane, and there was me, Fernando and Kimi.

"I thought that by letting Fernando past, I was open to being overtaken by Kimi. So I thought, 'OK, I'll just go for it'. I didn't think it was a huge problem.

"If he had stayed with me, we would both have got an extra lap, because there was plenty of time. But he backed off quite a bit and lost a lot of time, so he wasn't able to get an extra lap.

"It was a split-second decision. I had a choice. I either keep going and get an extra lap, which would help me, and at the end we are there to be fair and compete. I didn't impede him."

And Hamilton revealed this wasn't the first time he was asked to move over for Alonso. "It's the first time I have made a decision, but I have had to let him past before," he said.

But, Hamilton added, "We're not disagreeing. I just told you my side, he's telling you his side. I'm not disagreeing with him. That's his opinion."

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