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Fernando Alonso claimed the second victory of his debut season with Ferrari at Hockenheim, but only after the Scuderia told long-time leader Felipe Massa to make way for the Spaniard.
Massa had taken advantage of front row pair Sebastian Vettel and Alonso appeared preoccupied with fighting each other off the line, sweeping around the outside of turn one to claim the lead.
Alonso duly slotted into second as Vettel again found that trying to pin an opponent against the pit-wall was not a wise tactic, and the German nearly lost out to a fast-starting Jenson Button, until baulking the Briton as he attempted to defend third. Button, slowed, dropped back to sixth as Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber both got back inside him.
From there, the two Ferraris proceeded to drop Vettel as they traded early fastest laps, and held station through the round of pit-stops, where Button was the biggest winner, by vaulting past Webber into fifth behind his team-mate.
The order appeared static until the fateful call of ‘Felipe, Fernando is faster than you’ came on lap 48, and the Brazilian duly made room for his team-mate at the hairpin next time around. The atmosphere on the Ferrari pit stand was clear to see, with Massa’s engineer Rob Smedley decidedly apologetic at having to impart the ‘news’.
Once ahead, Alonso did pull away from his team-mate, who recovered from the blow of losing a potential victory on the eve of the anniversary of his Hungaroring accident to keep Vettel at bay over the remaining 17 laps, while Hamilton and Button gave vain chase at a distance in excess of 20 seconds, having briefly been told to save fuel.
Webber’s hopes of recovering the places he lost to the McLarens were dented by reports of excessive oil consumption with a third of the race to go, his sixth place points allowing Vettel to draw level in the championship, albeit still behind the McLaren duo.
Robert Kubica, Nico Rosberg, Michael Schumacher and Vitaly Petrov rounded out the point-scorers, despite the Russian being told to ensure that managed his gearshifts ‘properly’.
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What do you think?
Anonymous commented on this article
Monday July 26, 2010 at 12:19 pm
We will see what the WMSC say about it
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321 commented on this article
Monday July 26, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Pointless actions since Alonso clearly showed his lack of talent, so he wont win the championship.
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Tone commented on this article
Monday July 26, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Funny how no-one cared when McLaren does this with various team-mates down the years, Coulthard and Hakkinen, Raikkonen and Montoya etc… (or other teams, though few did it as obviously as McLaren) Everyone loves to have a go at Ferrari and while I agree this was stupid and wrong, the fan and media reaction to it has been vastly out of proportion and in some cases hypocritical
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PlutoSA commented on this article
Monday July 26, 2010 at 2:44 pm
If that the team had been any other, and they were in a simillar situation, would they have done it differently?
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Nexis commented on this article
Monday July 26, 2010 at 2:52 pm
@Tone : Mclaren did it when it was legal. And the drivers eg mika & dc always had a handshake agreement on it. kimi especially never benefitted from this. his main problem was that unlike crybaby teflonso, he just got out and drove fast. he broke montoya purely on speed.
Teflonso should be kicked out but i guess ferrari are selling themselves for santanders money.
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Claudia commented on this article
Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 4:24 am
That was no win. That was a gift.
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morao commented on this article
Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 10:06 am
that was a win that will make alonso world champion
thanks alonso thanks ferrari, bye bye hahahahahmiletonton ajajajjaja
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cazza123 commented on this article
Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 1:08 pm
Alonso has been a cry baby this season, you always hear him moaning over the radio, does my head in!!! Its about time he started racing! I feel sorry for Massa he was in 1st by pure talent and should have won the race not i want it on a plate Alonso!!!
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wantang bob commented on this article
Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Ferrari Incident Assistance (FIA) judged that it was illegal, but becuase they are are the only team not to break the rule that dictates that all cars must be red and all cars must have a prancing horse on the front, they can get away with a fine of 1/2 and hours work for the lead driver, rather than disqualification that teams not adhering to this rule would have faced.
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cookie commented on this article
Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 4:14 pm
the difference with mclaren is that when they where using team orders it was legal
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Simon Diamond commented on this article
Tuesday July 27, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Seriously, this happens ALL the time! Why does everyone suddenly care? Is this any different than Red Bull handing Webber’s wing to Vettel, or Webber being told to let Vettel pass when they ended up crashing into each other? If anyone should be fined for team orders this year, it should be Red Bull.
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Anonymous commented on this article
Wednesday July 28, 2010 at 10:41 am
Boo! Fernando Alonso doesn’t deserve that win. Ferrari should be ashamed and punished!
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Dazza commented on this article
Thursday July 29, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Team orders have been part of GP racing since I can remember, if you look at the facts, Ferrari were clearly the fastest team on the day and the best result for F1 was an Alonso win.
Yes I agree they could should have managed the switch in a more appropriate manor, and to be honest a Mute Fruit Bat with one wing would have done a better job of manoeuvring (his drivers) than Stefano Domenicali did but I for one, would rather have a five way battle for the title and this ridiculous rule buried with who ever knee jerked the thing into the rule book in the first place.
P1 Jenson PIT RADIO….. “Lewis is 3” shorter than you”
P2 Lewis PIT RADION….. “Jenson has been told you need 3” high heels”
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Stig's Irish Cousin commented on this article
Thursday July 29, 2010 at 3:08 pm
I feel sorry for Bob Smedley and even more so for Felipe.
On a Red Bull note though, if Vettel could start a race properly, i.e. not trying to shove people into the wall and finish a race properly ie not whack your team mate (and have a car that didn’t break down) then he would be walking away with the championship now. I’m glad he isn’t because it makes it exciting to watch week in week out but if Red Bull come away empty handed this year it will be all their own fault!
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ESP NICO commented on this article
Thursday July 29, 2010 at 5:05 pm
valencia gp??
hamilton….safety car???
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MR HAMILTON commented on this article
Friday July 30, 2010 at 9:19 pm
alonso may have won but his team sttil got fined
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Olgen Ifti commented on this article
Saturday July 31, 2010 at 4:58 pm
This kind of team orders should not be allowed anymore, they destroy the races!
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Ben commented on this article
Sunday August 1, 2010 at 12:07 am
As I’ve said b4. Alonso does not earn his results, he inherits them
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... commented on this article
Monday August 16, 2010 at 11:32 am
Red Bull have been the best at not giving team orders as Ferrari did it in Germany and Mclaren telling Button to ease off of Hamilton in Turkey because of fuel could have been a very discreet way of using team orders whereas Red Bull just let their drivers race and see what happens.
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Marisa R commented on this article
Wednesday August 18, 2010 at 1:36 am
Massa should have been the real winner. Alonso won out of pure luck, but really helped Ferrari out with his win. It seems like Red Bull and Ferrari are going to be fighting it out.
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Chache commented on this article
Saturday August 21, 2010 at 12:30 pm
All sport fans love to see individual achievement, and see the best win. But F1 is not individual, it is a team sport, and as such, it is reasonable to expect the teams to request each member to play in the team’s interest. The teams have a goal: win a championship, and it’s them who develop the cars, not the pilots. So, it’s their call, and we will always have team orders whether we like them or not.
What do you expect, have pilots from the same side fighting each other, and risk both: lives and cars for more fun?
I personally don’t like team orders, but I’m grown enough to accept this imperfection in F1.
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tha allumi commented on this article
Friday October 15, 2010 at 6:36 pm
this is fresh thumbs up if ya agree
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Anonymous commented on this article
Friday October 15, 2010 at 6:39 pm
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRR BITCHES
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Olgen Ifti commented on this article
Thursday October 28, 2010 at 3:57 am
I think Alsonso is going to win the title this year.
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