Fernando Alonso was in no doubt as to who should have got the blame for the first lap accident in the Miami GP Sprint that put Lando Norris and Lance Stroll out of the race.
The incident happened at the start with the cars heading into the first corner of the Miami International Autodrome. Hamilton thought he'd seen a gap down the inside into turn to pass a three-wide group of cars.
Instead he made contact with Stroll, who was shunted into Alonso in turn who then tagged the back of Norris, which knocked the McLaren out of the race.
"It wasn’t intentional to be touching with anyone, but everyone’s pushing as much as possible," Hamilton said. "I went for a gap, but then I think those guys went wide and then came back across so that’s kind of where we connected.”
Norris' retirement triggering a safety car caution for the MCL38 to be retrieved from trackside. Stroll's damage also proved terminal, although he limped back to pit lane. Alonso himself had a puncture and needed a new front wing.
It meant that Alonso was classified in 17th place at the chequered flag. Initially it looked as though Hamilton had finished in the points, but he was subsequently given a drive-thru penalty for speeding in pit lane.
“The penalty, definitely it sucks, but it’s one point,” Hamilton told the F1 TV channel. It meant Hamilton ended up 16th, one place ahead of Alonso.
However the Spaniard was still furious that Hamilton hadn't already been penalised earlier for causing the initial multi-car accident at the start.
"I think he ruined the race for a few people, especially Norris, who had a very fast car and he was out in that incident," Alonso grumbled to DAZN when asked about it by the media in the paddock after the end of the Sprint.
Alonso has been the recipient of a number of controversial penalties in recent outings. Having played safe at the start, he was relieved not to have been blamed for anything in today's Sprint.
"I was behind Ocon, I could maybe take a risk and overtake him, but logically I don't take the risk to avoid being penalised," he said. "I tried to complete the race, which is 19 laps, and go back to the team to talk about the changes.
“Maybe today I didn't get penalised, but I always get penalised,” he said. As for Hamilton not getting a penalty, he said: “We'll see what they decide. I guess they won't decide anything, because he's not Spanish."
In any case, Alonso admitted that he wasn't exactly deeply invested in the Sprint races and was saving his passion for Sunday's Grand prix race instead.
“We didn't have any interest in the sprint race,” he said. “We were just going to check degradation and things for tomorrow. and at the end we managed it. For us it's a free practice, it's not really a race."
Alonso added that the important part of the weekend started from here with qualifying on Saturday afternoon and the 57-lap Grand Prix on Sunday.
Drivers will be able to work on their cars ot of parc ferme conditions between the Sprint and GP qualifying with Alonso confirm that the Aston engineers will "see if we can improve the car a little bit.”
Stroll told that he had "a lot of damage" to his car after the Sprint accident, while Norris was also concerned about the damage to his car and anxious about it being repaired in time to take part in qualifying.
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