Horner laments 'manipulated' race

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso won the Hockenheim race but only after his team talked to team-mate Felipe Massa on the radio and suggested he should let him through.

Moments later, Massa slowed down and Alonso took the lead.

Horner says the sport was the big loser and feels Ferrari had no reason to do what it did.

"It's a great shame for Formula 1 that the race was manipulated to give one driver a victory over the other," Horner told AUTOSPORT.

"We came in for a lot of criticism in Istanbul for allowing our drivers to race but I think that it's the fair and sporting thing to do.

"The only losers today are Formula 1. Ferrari are a big enough team that they shouldn't need to do that and Fernando is a good enough driver not to particularly at this point in the season when there are still hundreds of points available."

Horner admitted he felt sorry for the fans who missed the opportunity to see Ferrari's drivers racing each other.

"It's a great shame. Ferrari are a great team," he said. "It's a shame for Formula 1 that they didn't allow Felipe and Fernando to race each other. There are not so many points between them and it was so obvious how they moved the cars around.

"The biggest losers are the fans, the spectators, the viewers as a race win was handed to Fernando. Rightly or wrongly, we've allowed our drivers to race because we believe that's the sporting thing to do and it also is within the regulations.

"The regulation was introduced for a reason, to stop exactly this situation happening. The FIA has all of the facts and it was done in such an obvious way and it would be a great shame if it's left unpunished because it sets a precedent that is wrong for F1," added Horner, speaking before Ferrari was fined $100,000 and referred to the WMSC.