Angry Alonso says race 'manipulated'

The Spanish driver finished in a distant ninth position after losing out during the safety car period following Mark Webber's crash.

Alonso was running in third at the time, right behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, but the Briton overtook the safety car and went on to finish in second.

Hamilton earned a drive-through penalty for his action, but the Briton kept second place while Alonso dropped out of the point-scoring positions for having respected the rules.

The Ferrari driver was angry at the stewards' decision, saying the race had been manipulated by it.

"It's a shame, not for us because this is racing, but for all the fans who came here to watch a manipulated race," he told Spanish television after the race.

"We were running well, in third after a good start. Then the safety car came out, which wasn't too good for us, but Hamilton overtook the safety car, something that I had never seen, overtaking the medical car with yellow flags. We were a metre off each other, and he finished second and I finished ninth.

"This race was to finish second. Then with the safety car I would have finished where I finished in ninth, and Hamilton in eighth. But here, when you do the normal thing, which is respecting the rules, you finish ninth, and the one who doesn't respect them finishes second."

The Spaniard said everything seemed to be going against him and his team.

"It must have been very hard to know," said Alonso of the times it took the stewards to penalise Hamilton. "They must have taken a lot of laps to see the replay of how he overtook the medical car.

"But that's how it is. Unfortunately everything goes against us and it seems they are allowing everything."

A further nine drivers are facing penalties for possible infringements.