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'All drivers want Massa to win' - Alonso

 
1,248 views Oct 16, 2008

Oct.17 (GMM) Moments after the FIA press conference on Thursday, Fernando Alonso told his Spanish compatriots what he really thinks of Lewis Hamilton.

Last week, the 27-year-old Renault driver admitted he would like to help Felipe Massa beat Hamilton, his teammate during an acrimonious tenure at McLaren last year, to the title.

Seated less than three feet from 23-year-old Hamilton in the official press briefing in Shanghai, however, Alonso was less forthright.

A British journalist asked him to comment on his admission that, although he did not know what Hamilton had done, he agreed with stewards' decision to penalise him at Fuji Speedway.

"I saw it, I was just behind them," he backtracked in China. "Sometimes what you read in newspapers is wrong."

Alonso then issued a "no comment" to whether he thought Hamilton's recent driving has been dangerous, and when asked if he was jealous of his British rival, he insisted: "I'm very happy."

But not long after leaving the press conference, Alonso made his feelings clear, according to the Spanish broadcaster Telecinco.

"Last year, when the championship was at this stage, everyone said they wanted either me or Kimi to win.

"This year, all the drivers want Massa to be champion. So I think it is not my problem, it is Hamilton's," Alonso said.

His different attitudes sparked a headline rebuke by the British newspaper The Sun: 'Now tell me to my face', it read, alongside a photo of a menacing-looking Hamilton.

If Alonso really got his way, however, his friend Robert Kubica would beat both Hamilton and Massa to the 2008 crown.

"I know this is quite difficult because I think that with the performance of his car it will be difficult to recover 12 points," Alonso said.



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