Controversial Ferrari’s Pip “Amazing Thailand” Red Bull

Published : July 26, 2010 :: 13:07:21 [ 1,478 views ]

The prancing horse gained their second one-two race win of the season in Hockenheim on Sunday. The win was soured when coded team orders appeared to suggest that Felipe Massa allow eventual race winner Fernando Alonso to pass, which he duly did.

Germany, the 26^th of July 2010: Formula 1’s governing body the FIA have since fined the Italian outfit US$100,000 following a steward’s inquiry into the breaching of FIA Rule 39.1, which specifically restricts “Team orders which interfere with race results.”

Ferrari’s number two driver, Felipe Massa, was clearly told over the team radio, while leading the race on lap 21, “Alonso is faster than you. Can you confirm you understand?” Immediately following this broadcast, Alonso passed Massa on turn six. Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley then told Massa, “Good lad. Just stick with it now, sorry.”

The controversial incident, which Ferrari maintains was a “driver decision,” marred what was in fact a dominant display by the Italian outfit, both Massa and Alonso were consistently quicker than their rivals throughout the weekend.

Asked to comment on the call after the race, Massa, who was effectively denied a win by his team, stated, “I don’t need to say anything about that. He passed me.” Alonso distanced himself even further from the question, adding, “sometimes you are quick, sometimes you are slow. It’s a very strong result for the team. I think it was a good weekend overall, we improved the car a lot. We performed very well.”

Appearing on the podium for the first time at his home Grand Prix, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettal came third, over four seconds adrift of the Ferrari pairing. The Red Bull team, sporting their new “Amazing Thailand” partnership logo’s, were a little off the Ferrari’s pace this weekend, having been the bench mark for speed this season prior to the German Grand Prix. As part of the “Amazing Thailand” sponsorship deal, Red Bull recently gave away a trip for two to Thailand amongst a host of other fantastic prizes.

McLaren’s pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button took fourth and fifth respectively, while Red Bull’s Mark Webber finished sixth with reported engine troubles.

Renault’s Robert Kubica took seventh ahead of Mercedes pairing Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher in eighth and ninth respectively. Russian Vitaly Petrov rounded off the top ten an amazing 1-lap behind eventual winner Alonso.

Formula One Championship Standings Courtesy of http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2

Comments

stropmag

said :

If either of the RBR drivers lose the championship by just a few points to Alonso, they will have the right to feel cheated. For what it's worth, I think Vettel will do the business anyway.

Email : paul.johnson@mail.net Date : 2010-07-26 16:08:40

Len

said :

Cheating on the very regulation that was brought into place because of their cheating 8 years ago!!!!
Once again the race stewards far too slow to enforce a penalty, both Alonso and Massa should have been served a drive through penalty during the race, with a financial penalty to follow for the team - and i am a Ferrari fan!
Bloody disgrace to the sport!! So fkn annoyed seeing that shite yesterday!
Ferrari being fined $100,000 is like me losing 25 Satang through a hole in my pocket - un-noticeable!

Email : weewull@hotmail.com Date : 2010-07-26 15:55:11

alonsomum

said :

Cheating bastards they should have their points deducted and be banned for the rest of the season.

Email : findme@yahoo.com Date : 2010-07-26 13:46:52

Hot News

Sponsor

Pattaya Daily News