The Renault team and Fernando Alonso, have made it clear that there was no deliberate ’slowing’ or braking to cause Hamilton to run into the back of the Renault on lap two of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Alonso said “I think we were running too close and for sure maybe he didn’t realise how close we were. He jumped into my rear wing. I am sure on the first couple of laps, if you are eighth or ninth, you try to recover places too quickly. Pat Symonds (Renault engineering chief) told me now that rumour and he has printed now the data to show everybody. It is totally rubbish, but what can I do?”
The print-out proves that Alonso had his foot flat on the throttle from the exit and did not touch his brakes.
Hamilton, blamed himself for the incident and never accused Alonso of any ‘dirty tactics’.
Symonds explains “Fernando was coming out of the turn and accelerating down the straight. He reached fifth gear, at 227km/h, on full throttle, no touching of the brakes or anything like that. And you can see on the accelerometer the impact. He got hit from behind. I think all I can say from our side is that there is no blame attributable to Fernando, which is what some of the speculation might be. But it does say we are not getting onto the straights very well, we are suffering a bit with traction, engine speed and engine torque.”
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