Renault deny that Alonso slowed deliberately during Bahrain GP

Lewis Hamilton’s slim chances of winning the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday were scuppered by his evil ex-McLaren team-mate, Fernando Alonso. Hamilton drove his McLaren into the back of Alonso’s Renault on the second lap. From where Grid Crasher was sitting, it looked like a typical racing accident: Hamilton was hell-bent on recovering from a poor start, Alonso was not about to let him past. Martin Brundle suggested on ITV that Alonso might have brake-tested Hamilton, but after the race Renault were more than happy to show the telemetry print-out to anyone who queried their driver’s actions. According to AFP, “the telemetry showed Alonso was flat on the throttle from the exit and did not touch his brakes. He accelerated in a totally predictable manner”.

To be fair to Hamilton, he did not publicly blame Alonso for the prang, although who knows if he later hurled a few toys from his pram in the McLaren motorhome. Alonso called the brake-test claim ‘totally rubbish’. It was a matter of time before the pair clashed during a race in 2008, and after what happened last season it was always going to provide a juicy back-story to whichever grand prix it occurred at. Do you think Alonso brake-tested his former team-mate? Vote below: