After just missing out on the final point in Sunday afternoon's Japanese Grand Prix after being unable to get past the Mercedes powered Williams of Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso's day went from bad to worse with stewards giving him an official reprimand for ignoring blue flags.
During the final laps, the Spaniard was doing everything in his power to pass his former teammate for tenth place and the final point for the day when the leaders came up to lap him. Lewis Hamilton was being hunted quite ferociously by the Red Bull of Max Verstappen at the time and while he let Hamilton straight through on the penultimate lap of the race, he was given the blur flag a lap earlier.
Then, to make matters worse, Fernando cut back across the front of the Red Bull holding Verstappen up for just that little bit longer. However, while he received his first reprimand of the year as a result, and given two penalty points, Alonso insits that he didn't do anything to alter the final outcome of the race.
"Hamilton was leading and the Red Bull was second," said Alonso. "I don't know it I waited two or three corners more or less, but they finished in that order so there was no big implication in the race's final outcome. Whatever they decide we will accept it and we'll try better next time."
Many might argue that had he let them through earlier Verstappen may have had the opportunity to get past Hamilton for the win, even though Red Bull boss Christian Horner confirmed after the race that while with another lap Max may have made the pass, he was in fact fighting an issue with his front tyre that slowed his solid charge on the Mercedes.
