The
McLaren team has claimed that
Heikki Kovalainen was not
asked to move over for a charging
Lewis Hamilton in the latter stages of the German Grand Prix, despite the Briton appearing to have easy passage past his team-mate
en route to victory.
The decision not to pit Hamilton under the safety car precipitated by
Timo Glock's mid-race accident left the points leader back in fifth place when he rejoined after a 'green flag' stop, but he appeared to be 'gifted' two spots by
Nick Heidfeld's pit-stop and Kovalainen's apparent lack of resistance.
Such was Hamilton's progress past his team-mate, there were mutterings of 'team orders', even though such practices have been banned since
Ferrari occasionally used them to great effect in helping
Michael Schumacher overcome
Rubens Barrichello during their time together at Maranello. Instead, McLaren insisted that Kovalainen had been wise enough to realise that he was only going to hold his team-mate back if he contested fourth place, and conceded the spot of his own volition.
“The reality in that particular situation was that Lewis was quicker than Heikki on the day," team CEO Martin Whitmarsh explained, "When Lewis came up behind him, Heikki was sporting enough to move over – even though it must have been an incredibly difficult decision for him to make in the cockpit. We're grateful for Heikki for showing the strength of character and sportsmanship to make that sacrifice – we're all aware how tough it must have been.”
The team had already been penalised for illegal practice on the Finn's car during qualifying on Saturday afternoon, although Whitmarsh pointed out that that had been a misunderstanding of the rules regarding in-session refuelling.
“During a busy qualifying session, if you want to accurately deliver a small amount of fuel to the car, it is easier to use a small churn of fuel rather than connecting the regular race refuelling rig," Whitmarsh explained.
