Cast your minds back, if you will, to the Austrian Grand Prix at the A1 Ring in 2002. That day, Rubens Barrichello was denied a thoroughly deserved win due to team orders from Ferrari. Flash forward 8 years, and most would argue that Felipe Massa was similarly denied a thoroughly deserved win due to team orders from Ferrari. Whilst it's just about impossible to not subscribe to that viewpoint, I unashamedly defend Ferrari's decision. The reason it was inexcusable in 2002 was because Ferrari had a commanding lead in both championships anyway, meaning the position change was totally needless. In 2010 however, Fernando Alonso prior to today had fallen 49 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton, Massa 78 points. The choice to treat drivers equally until one is mathematically eliminated can prove counter-productive, so I salute Ferrari for electing to throw their full weight behind Alonso. After all, what's Felipe's race compared to Fernando's possible championship?
Controversy aside though, It was clear from the outset that the Ferraris were on the pace, for real this time. Alonso emphatically confirmed that fact by coming just two-thousandths of a second shy of pole position, with Massa lining up in 3rd. Sebastian Vettel continued the Red Bull near-monopoly on pole, whilst Mark Webber in the sister car didn't have an answer to the Ferraris on Saturday. The McLarens were even further off the pace, sharing row three between them, Button ahead of Hamilton.
When the lights went out at the start of the race, Vettel made his trademark 'pin 'em against the pitwall' manoeuvre which proved costly on this particular occasion – it opened an inviting gap for an especially fast-starting Massa, which he duly took before sweeping around the outside of Alonso to take an early lead. The Bahrain winner muscled his way through on Vettel anyway; whilst Jenson Button's fine start was for naught when he was baulked by the German. Hamilton wasted no time in passing Webber at the hairpin on Lap 1, but thereafter just couldn't keep up with the pace of Vettel and the Scarlet machines.
Meanwhile, Sebastien Buemi had his wing unceremoniously torn off by Adrian Sutil's rogue Force India at the same time, meaning the German had to make a pitstop. Incidentally, both teammates were also caught up warranting Jaime Alguersauri and Tonio Liuzzi unforeseen trips to the pits as well. Then, to make matters worse for Force India, the pit crew accidentally put the sets of tyres on the cars the wrong way round! Both Force India drivers were called in the next lap to avoid a penalty for that, but their races were well and truly ruined.
Back at the front, Massa was starting to make headway from Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Webber and Button. Home driver Vettel was the first of that group to pit on Lap 13, rejoining the action in 6th place comfortably ahead of Robert Kubica who had well and truly been dropped by the leading sextet. Alonso and Webber were next to oblige, with Alonso returning 4th behind Massa and the two McLarens, whilst Webber lost out somewhat, filtering back into the pack down in 9th. Button opted to pit later than most, finally coming in on lap 23, but the decision paid dividends when he took 5th place from Webber.
Now on the hard compound tyres, the top 6 split into 2 distinct groups: The two Ferraris and Vettel, and then the two McLarens and Webber. That became 3 when Webber dropped back because of oil consumption issues, but at the front things were getting interesting. Alonso was clearly the quicker on the harder compound tyre, with Massa seemingly feeling considerable pressure after locking his wheels three times under braking. With Vettel beginning to loom on the horizon, Alonso gesticulated his frustration visibly on the on-board camera.
Massa began to recover, but after hitting traffic, Alonso was able to close to within a second. It was at this point that on the exit of the hairpin, Massa deliberately and obviously backed off to let his more illustrious teammate by, having received an ominous call from race engineer Rob Smedley to say 'Fernando is faster than you.' There was no question of the result from there on, and Alonso went on to win the race by a comfortable margin from an incredibly downtrodden Massa. Vettel was able to close on, but ultimately not overtake Massa to claim the final spot on the podium for his adoring home fans.
The two McLarens finished 4th and 5th, Hamilton from Button, whilst Webber brought his ailing Red Bull home in 6th. Kubica, the two Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher (off the pace once again at Mercedes' home race) and Vitaly Petrov rounded out the point scorers. Kamui Kobayashi couldn't continue his impressive form to trail home in 11th, ahead of the two unimpressive Williams cars of newly-crowned Top Gear test track champ Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg, and the other Sauber of Pedro De La Rosa whose alternative strategy failed to net him positions. Alguersauri was next ahead of the beleaguered Force Indias, Timo Glock's Virgin and Bruno Senna's Hispania.
Alonso's win brings him right back into contention for title honours, with the Spaniard just 24 points behind Hamilton in the points standings. Button remains 2nd after an anonymous race, ahead of the two Red Bulls who are now interestingly tied for points. But the debate remains: was Ferrari's decision justified?
The most excruciating thing about the whole affair was the way the team handled the PR, i.e. horrendously. The Ferrari press office vehemently denied any wrong-doing, despite the clear signals given from Massa and Smedley in the post-race interviews. However, the FiA saw through this blatant charade and slapped the team with a $100,000 fine. Some would argue that's not sufficient, but to dock points or administer grid penalties would surely be punishing the wrong parties – it wasn't the drivers' decision to switch positions, despite what Ferrari press officer Luca Colajanni would have you believe. The sad fact remains though that this kind of thing, if done properly, is near-impossible to police. It's just a shame Ferrari didn't do it properly.
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