Alonso Lashes out at Renault

A furious Nick Heidfeld scolded the wrong man after his disastrous final tour of the Chinese grand prix.

The German was guiding his BMW-Sauber to fourth place when he came across badly behaved backmarkers Christijan Albers and Takuma Sato.

But Heidfeld, who applauded the stewards' decision to penalise both of them, immediately hopped out of his cockpit after pulling over alongside the start-finish line and accosted the first Super Aguri driver he found.

It was Sakon Yamamoto.

Reportedly, Heidfeld accused the Japanese of leaving his 'brain in the hotel' before the startled Yamamoto advised that he should continue his search for Sato.

Heidfeld, 29, apparently apologised to Sakon Yamamoto but asked the rookie to 'pass on' his antagonism to Sato.

Fernando Alonso has waded into controversy by suggesting that some members of his Renault team do not want him to win his title showdown with Michael Schumacher – because they can’t bear to see him take the coveted number ‘1’ to arch-rivals McLaren next year.

Alonso made the extraordinary claim on Spanish television after losing the championship lead for the first time this season in the Chinese Grand Prix, a race that looked his for the taking until a tactical error and a fumbled wheel change handed Schumacher victory.

“The whole team is gutted, apart from the handful of people who don’t want me to take the number 1 to McLaren,” the Spanish media quoted Alonso as saying.

He added that there was “no doubt” that Renault regarded winning a second consecutive constructors’ championship as more important than his own title defence, suggesting that only some team members were disappointed by the outcome of Sunday’s race.

“Some others are happy because we went past Ferrari in the team battle,” he said.

“They are not helping me as much as they could.”

Renault moved quickly to defuse the situation, dismissing suggestions that civil war was breaking out in the team’s ranks amid the pressure cooker of the title race and Alonso’s impending defection to McLaren.

“This is not an issue,” a team spokesman told the Guardian newspaper.

“We are 150% behind Fernando in his battle for the championship and there is no question of our commitment flagging.

“The points situation is so tight that to win the constructors’ championship you’ve got to be sure of winning the drivers’ championship and vice-versa.

“We have worked flat-out since Monza on engine development to ensure that we keep our competitive edge through to the last race of the season in Brazil.

“In addition, Giancarlo [Fisichella] drove purely for the team at Shanghai on Sunday, finishing third behind Fernando.

“There is no problem at all with the relations between him and the team.”

Nonetheless, Alonso’s outburst is a measure of the tension he feels as the championship heads to a nail-biting climax, as well as his simmering frustration over recent rulings that have worked against him and prompted much of the Spanish media to accuse the FIA of sabotaging his title bid.

It is likely to be viewed by Ferrari as a sign that Schumacher now has the upper hand in the crucial psychological battle between F1’s two great rivals.