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McLaren lost F1 title because of wrong decisions: Alonso
Mon, Oct 22, 2007
AP (Associated Press)

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Fernando Alonso blamed McLaren for the team's failure to win the Formula One title this season because of poor decisions in the second half of the year.

Lewis Hamilton and two-time defending champion Alonso entered Sunday's decisive Brazilian Grand Prix at the top of the drivers' championship, but Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won the title after a series of McLaren blunders during the race.

Alonso hinted the mistakes began way before the Brazilian GP.

"McLaren lost the championship because of some of the decisions it made in the second half of the championship," Alonso told Spanish radio station Cadena SER early Monday. "It's no secret that they didn't help me, they didn't do anything for me."

Alonso, in his first year with McLaren, complained throughout the year he didn't get the respect he deserved as a two-time world champion and said the team was favoring Hamilton, a British rookie.

Hamilton went off the track on the first lap of Sunday's race and a subsequent gear box problem kept him from finishing higher than seventh. The result was jeopardized, however, after a FIA investigation on possible fuel irregularities on three of the drivers who finished ahead of Hamilton.

FIA did not initially penalize the drivers, but McLaren was expected to appeal and the outcome could alter the result of the championship.

"If Hamilton wins the championship after this today it wouldn't be fair and I would ashamed to be in this sport," Alonso said. "If they give you the title, you don't think it's a present but rather that you deserve it. He (Hamilton) would be delighted if they give it to him."

Alonso said Raikkonen deserved the title because it was won on the track.

"If you have more points, you are the deserved champion just like in football," Alonso said. "If after 17 races you finish with more points than your rivals then you are the deserved winner."

Alonso couldn't keep up with the pace of the Ferraris in the Brazilian GP and finished third, one spot lower than he needed to clinch the title after Raikkonen's victory.

"Ferrari has done better work than anyone," Alonso said.

The Spaniard was trying to become only the third driver to win three consecutive F1 titles, along with Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher.

His future with McLaren was still uncertain after the Brazilian GP, and some reports said he could be returning to Renault, the team for which he won titles in 2005 and '06.

 

 
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