“Lewis' bad start and the incident with Fernando – which extensively damaged his car – seriously hampered his pace,” explained
McLaren team principal Ron Dennis. “We then took the early decision to save the engine for the next race in Barcelona.”
“A day to forget,” concurred Mercedes-Benz Motorsport President Norbert Haug. “First Lewis lost seven positions at the start, and then he lost his front wing in the rear-end collision. As a consequence his car was damaged and, technically-handicapped, he was without a chance to score points.”
Little love is lost between Hamilton and Alonso after the pair endured an uneasy and at times explosive relationship as team-mates at McLaren in 2007, with the latter ultimately departing the Woking-based squad last December, two years before his three-year contract was due for renewal. The former double world champion, however, did not comment on the collision.
“The race was difficult,” he affirmed afterwards, “as I had expected. Our qualifying yesterday in Q3 had been a big surprise, but we knew that our race pace would not allow us to do much better in the race. We are still missing some speed, but we hope to improve in Barcelona.”
“Fernando's race was compromised at the beginning when he was hit by Hamilton,” added the
Régie's managing director Flavio Briatore. “After that he did all that he could, despite a damaged car.”
