Dennis blames both drivers for row

BUDAPEST, Hungary (Reuters) -- Lewis Hamilton's rocky relationship with McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso hit a wall of silence on Sunday.

The 22-year-old championship-leading rookie said, after winning the Hungarian Grand Prix, that he and Alonso had not spoken since the Spaniard was stripped of pole position for blocking the Briton in qualifying the day before.

While Hamilton was promoted to the top slot on the starting grid and won, double world champion Alonso was demoted to sixth place and finished fourth.

That left him seven points behind his team mate with six races remaining.

"He doesn't seem to have been speaking to me since yesterday. So I don't know if he has a problem," Hamilton told a news conference at the Hungaroring.

McLaren were barred from scoring Formula One constructors' points in the race, subject to any appeal, for their role in the qualifying incident.

Both drivers felt aggrieved by what happened on Saturday, with Hamilton ignoring repeated requests from the team to allow Alonso to go past earlier in the final qualifying session.

The Spaniard then held up Hamilton in the pit lane for long enough to prevent the Briton beating his time in the dying seconds.

"I don't think either driver is blameless in this situation," team boss Ron Dennis said.

Hamilton said he had apologized for a row with Dennis on the radio during qualifying and had also spoken to team members.

"With Ron, obviously yesterday he wasn't very happy. We just had to be professional and sat down and spoke about it and I told him my views," he said.

"He respected those and said 'Okay, I respect that because its part of your personality'...so we came to a mutual understanding and started with a clean slate from today."

The Briton recognized however that he had arrived at the circuit on Sunday with some trepidation.

"It was difficult to stay focused because obviously you had this feeling in the team, that the team weren't getting any points," he said. "So you didn't know whether the team hated you, or whether they just hated the situation, who they blamed.

"I just tried to come in with a smile on my face and try to remain positive through it all and do the same procedure as always," he added.

"So I did go around to the whole team and I said 'come on, let's do this, good luck.' There was only one person that didn't (respond). That didn't really affect me, I just got on and did my job."

Hamilton said that despite the frostiness of his team mate, he still respected the Spaniard even if he had evident misgivings about his sportsmanship.

"I thought that because of the argument I'd had with Ron over the radio earlier -- and he was obviously angry -- I thought he was just teaching me a lesson (in qualifying) and so I just took it on the chin.

"That's why when I came to the (Saturday) press conference I said that I wouldn't have thought Fernando would do something like that. But I have reasons to believe otherwise."

Alonso said: "I guess he (Hamilton) will have a different relationship with the team in the next race, because I don't think they are very happy, and I will have the same one (relationship).

"What happened yesterday was something new for the team. Hamilton not listening, disobeying them, was something they hadn't experienced and I guess they wanted to make him see that.

"But anyway, in the next race, I guess everything will be back to normal and we will both try to win the race."

Asked if the sport's ruling body, the FIA, had been fair in stripping him of pole position and his team of their constructors' points, he said: "They should know. If they have penalized me, and the team, they must have a reason.

"But I repeat what I said before: it's the first time that a rule has been created out of the blue, since there's nothing written in the regulations about the time you take to make a pit-stop.

"Now they'll have to watch all teams closely and whoever takes a bit longer to end the pit-stop will have to be penalized."

Asked about the championship, he said he remained motivated to retain his title and would dismiss the furore of Budapest from his mind.

"These things happen in every sport, and also in F1, and it happened to me. But we have stop thinking about it. It's a new kind of penalty and that's it," he said.

"It's not easy. I don't know if it's because in previous years I had to defend myself, but it seemed a little easier. This year, I'm always on the limit, tied in the first half of the season, and now I'm a bit behind.

"The races are going by and you arrive each Thursday and you know you have another mountain to climb, that you are going to have to fight against a lot of things, but until the final lap in Brazil you can't ease off." E-mail to a friend

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