Alonso: Hamilton complains about everything

The Spanish veteran was at his very best on Sunday, as he fended off Hamilton's late-race charge and prevent the reigning world champion from scoring his 100th victory in the top flight and further increase his lead in the points standings.

Speaking after a riveting race, in which he was voted Driver of the Day, Alonso told AutoBild: "I saw on the TV screens around the track how Vettel and Esteban fought for victory a few corners in front of me and I knew: every lap I can stop Lewis is gold for victory.

"In the last corners he was never close enough to attack the start-finish, but he tried different lines behind me and then used the best in his later manoeuvre against Carlos Sainz," explained Alonso.

During the fight, the Mercedes world champion went on the radio questioning Alonso's driving tactics, but that did not perturb the Alpine driver who said: "Hamilton complains about everything. I haven't heard from the FIA so I think it was fine.

And added: "That was important for Max and I really gave everything."

Indeed it was as Hamilton was denied a maximum points haul on the day and thus it helped Verstappen - a victim of Valtteri Bottas' waywardness on the opening lap - who was compromised with a damaged bargeboard after the incident in Turn 1, which had him driving "half a car" for most of the afternoon.

Earlier during the weekend at Hungaroring, Verstappen slammed journalists for antagonising the title contest with questions relating to his "retaliation" in the ake of his first lap coming together during the British Grand Prix two weeks earlier, the Dutch ace taking exception to a question to many on the issue.

Alonso sympathised with the 23-year-old: “This sport is currently in a British-dominated environment: teams, journalists, TV crews - most of them come from England. And of course, they all prefer the guy from their home country.

"for the same reasons, I felt it really bad back then when I was fighting against British drivers. That's why I understand his situation," recalled the double F1 World Champion.

Alonso's gutsy cameo, in this episode of this champagne championship season, did not go unnoticed by Red Bull boss Christian Horner who acknowledged after the race: "Fortunately, Mercedes made a strategic blunder and it seemed like Fernando Alonso was driving for Red Bull! As a result, the damage was less than what it could have been."

"And it looked like Fernando Alonso was driving in service of Red Bull. As a result, the damage was less than what it could have been."