Sports / Motor Racing
McLaren deny favouring Alonso over Hamilton
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-05-28 08:50
MONACO, May 27 - McLaren denied favouring double world champion Fernando
Alonso in the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday after rookie team mate Lewis
Hamilton suggested he had been forced into a supporting role.
Team boss Ron Dennis said the 22-year-old joint championship leader and
runner-up to Spaniard Alonso in a dominant McLaren one-two, would have
won had the safety car been deployed.
For the first time this season, the Briton appeared less than ecstatic
with second place -- his fifth podium in five Formula One starts.
"I have the number two on my car, and I am the number two driver," he
told a news conference.
Hamilton had qualified on the front row with a far heavier car than
Alonso on pole position.
Alonso led from the start but when Hamilton had the chance to build up a
gap, after the Spaniard's first pitstop, he was unable to do so because
the team called him in to refuel earlier than expected.
"I was actually quite surprised because I was fuelled to go five, nearly
six, laps longer than Fernando and they stopped me with three laps," said
Hamilton. "That's unfortunate but it's the way it goes."
Alonso explained that he had in fact gone two laps longer than scheduled
because he had used less fuel than expected in the opening laps and
Dennis was adamant there was no hidden agenda.
He said his job was to make difficult decisions and Monaco was a unique
circuit where the introduction of the safety car, deployed in four of the
last five years, could wreck the best-laid plans.
The two drivers therefore had to be on radically different strategies.
"Everybody feels I'm sure, and a lot of people will feel it in England,
that there is some favouritism or some penalisation that is given to
either Lewis or Fernando," he added.
"But we are scrupulously fair at all times in how we run this grand prix
team.
"We will never favour one driver, no matter who it is. We never have, we
never will."
Dennis confirmed he had instructed both drivers to slow their pace after
the first pitstop to limit risks and protect the one-two. With no major
accidents, the safety car remained absent.
"I don't like to slow drivers down, I don't like them to be frustrated,"
he said. "I don't like to see these things happen, because I am an
absolute racer. It's just the way you have to win the Monaco Grand Prix,
which is what we've done.
"If the safety car was deployed, Lewis Hamilton would have won the race."
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