Highlights

Alonso criticises Massa after first lap collision

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-05-14 09:41

Spain's Fernando Alonso questioned Felipe Massa's driving on Sunday after a first-corner collision between the two ended any hope of the double world champion winning his home grand prix.

Ferrari's Massa, celebrating his second win in a row, shrugged off the McLaren driver's criticism as unwarranted however.

"I was on the outside, I braked later and I think I was much in front of him in the first corner," said Alonso, who finished third in a damaged car and lost the championship lead to British rookie team mate Lewis Hamilton.

"But unfortunately he didn't think so and we touched. We were lucky to both finish the race, in 99 percent of these incidents both cars would finish at the first corner.

"Sometimes I think it's very dangerous this type of thing," added the Spaniard, who had hoped to repeat last year's win at the Circuit de Catalunya in front of a record 140,700 spectators.

Alonso had started on the front row, alongside pole-man Massa, and tried to go past on the outside.

Massa, pilloried for losing out at the first corner from pole position in Malaysia in April, responded by forcing the Spaniard on to the gravel -- allowing Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to sweep past.

Alonso said his car was difficult to drive from then on, and his problems were compounded after he took a gamble with the tyre choice at the first stop.

"If you look at my car, at my side-pod and the rear side of the car, it is completely touched," said Alonso. "I think that shows everybody who arrived first into the corner. I was more than half a car in front."

Massa, sitting alongside the Spaniard, refused to take any of the blame.

"If somebody was aggressive, then it was Fernando and not me," he said.

"In my career I have always been the first one to admit when I am wrong but this time don't try to say that I made a mistake," added the Brazilian. "Come on, I think this is racing and Formula One."

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said the team would not be making any protest.