Hamilton is driving us crazy, says Alonso
Lewis Hamilton was accused by rival Fernando Alonso of “ruining a lot of people’s races” as his painful final season with Mercedes continued with 16th place in the Miami sprint race yesterday.
An enraged Alonso also alleged, in a comment that could yet be looked at by the sport’s governing body, that the seven-time world champion only avoided a penalty for a first-lap collision as he was “not Spanish”.
Hamilton got away well in the 19-lap race. But as he flew up the inside of a number of rivals into Turn 1, he came into contact with the Aston Martin of Alonso outside him.
Alonso in turn hit his team-mate Lance Stroll, who proceeded to clip the rear wheel of Lando Norris’ McLaren on the outside of the right-hander, sending the young Briton spinning off track.
The incident, which brought out a safety car, claimed a number of casualties. Both Stroll and Norris were forced to retire from the race. Alonso, meanwhile, picked up a puncture, eventually finishing 17th.
The Aston Martin driver, who accused Hamilton over his radio of having arrived at T1 “like a bull”, did not hide his feelings after the race, laying blame for the collision squarely at the door of the Mercedes driver and suggesting darkly that stewards would have penalised the seven-time world champion had he been Spanish rather than British.
“We’ll see what they decide,” the twotime world champion said sarcastically, apparently unaware stewards had already looked at, and dismissed, the incident. “I imagine they won’t decide anything, because he isn’t Spanish.
“But I think he ruined a lot of people’s races, especially Norris – who has a very fast car.”
Hamilton received some support from Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle, who suggested it was in fact Stroll who had arrived “like a bull” at the first corner. But the 39-year-old’s mood would not have been helped by how the race ultimately panned out.
Although Hamilton survived that first-corner contact, he spent most of the ensuing 19 laps stuck behind the Haas of Kevin Magnussen. The Dane picked up no fewer than three penalties in a desperate attempt to hold off Hamilton, all of them “well deserved” by Magnussen’s own admission.
And when Hamilton did eventually manage to pass the Haas, and Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpine, to finish eighth, and pick up a solitary point, his misery continued as he was hit with a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
Given he could not serve it as the race was over, that converted into a 20-second post-race time penalty, dropping Hamilton to P16, ironically one place ahead of Alonso.