F1 News
Priestley remembers pitlane incident Hamilton Alonso: "Lost all respect."
- GPblog.com
Marc Priestley is now mainly known as an F1 connoisseur on Youtube, but he has acquired that status as a mechanic with the McLaren team. In those years he experienced, among other things, the duel between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. A battle that reached the boiling point in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2007 proceeded without any significant incidents until McLaren decided to bring both drivers in for a set of new tyres during the third qualifying session.
Alonso came in first and then deliberately stopped in the pit lane. With this tactic he tried to make sure that Hamilton, who was behind him, wouldn't have enough time to drive a fast lap. This tactic succeeded and Alonso took pole position. Marc Priestley stood there and watched.
No respect for Alonso and Hamilton
"I was one of the people who tried to send him [Alonso] away. I was totally stunned. At the time we couldn't put our finger on why he did it, but shortly afterwards the penny dropped", he says in the MotorMouth podcast.
"What I remember most of all is that I lost all respect not only for him, but for both drivers actually. They both had a part in this process. But I couldn't help but have a lot of respect for the way he [Alonso] was able to estimate how long he had to stand still to drive another lap, while forcing Hamilton out."