F1 London

Alonso was incensed following the European Grand Prix in Valencia after watching Hamilton claim second, despite overtaking a safety car deployed in the wake of Mark Webber’s spectacular accident.

Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty, yet served it 17 laps after the Webber smash due to circumstances, whilst Alonso trailed home eighth.

Alonso, who had been running third in his Ferrari behind Hamilton when the safety car incident occurred, later claimed the race had been “manipulated” and the Briton had disrespected the rules.

For his part, Hamilton claimed Alonso’s comments were sour grapes as old wounds, initially inflicted from their torrid time as team -mates at McLaren in 2007, were re-opened.

To ensure, though, there was no lingering animosity between the duo heading into this weekend’s British Grand Prix, Hamilton opted to contact Alonso.

Final practice – four teams in the top four

After a fast start to the season in which Alonso won the season-opening Bahrain GP, Ferrari have tailed off of late, with the team forced to settle for eight and ninth spot in Turkey, a race that was supposed to be a celebration of their 800th race in the sport.

Reports now suggest that Alonso is becoming highly frustrated with the teams’ lack of progress.

“I’m told that Fernando Alonso is very frustrated by Ferrari’s rate of development. Compared to his time at McLaren in 2007, when the British team had updates for every race, Ferrari’s flow of new parts this season has been very slow, with no more than little tweaks here and there so far,” explained BBC commentator Jonathan Legard.

“The result is that the car that started the season right on Red Bull’s heels is now, in Alonso’s words, ‘the fifth quickest’.

Race – McLaren one-two as Red Bulls tangle in Turkey

Although Hamilton has stated on a few occasions this season his car is the best he has driven, he has yet to taste victory, unlike team-mate Jenson Button who has won twice.

Failure to take the chequered flag in Turkey this weekend will see the 25-year-old equal his worst run in F1 of 10 races without a win.

That was at the start of last season when Hamilton was at the wheel of a painfully-slow McLaren, only for the team to produce a stunning about-turn in performance and results.

Hamilton is convinced all the pieces will fall into place over the course of a weekend, and he will be a winner again.

“With all the different things that have happened, it has been a bit of a lottery for me,” said Hamilton.

Alonso revealed after the race that he was prepared to make a move on Hamilton once the Safety Car returned to the pits on the last lap but his team forbid him.

However, according to BBC pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz Schumacher – who was slapped with a 20-second penalty for the overtaking move – told his Mercedes team that the Spaniard was caught napping.

‘I’m reliably informed Michael was on the radio on the slowing down lap telling the team how Alonso was asleep, a phrase team principal Ross Brawn repeated later in our interview at the end of the BBC One show,’ Kravitz wrote on his BBC blog.

Despite his penalty in Monaco, Kravitz also believes Schumacher will happy that he proved he still has “that edge”.

Schumi penalised

Michael Schumacher has been hit with a 20-second penalty for his late move on Fernando Alonso in the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver had finished in sixth place after overtaking Alonso following the final safety car period of the race – when the safety car peeled into the pits on the final lap.

Stewards examined the incident following the race and deemed that Schumacher had broken regulations stating that drivers can’t overtake if the race ends when the safety car has been deployed – with the safety car returning to the pits and the drivers then taking the chequered flag in the order they were running.

The penalty drops Schumacher to twelfth place in the race and hands the final point to Sebastien Buemi.

Mercedes had argued that the safety car had been withdrawn and that Schumacher was right to make a move for position as a result.