Stewards in Austin have decided to take no further action against McLaren's Fernando Alonso over the Spaniard’s robust late-race pass on Felipe Massa at the Circuit of The Americas.
Alonso made contact with Massa as he passed the Williams driver for sixth with an opportunistic move at Turn 15 on the 52nd lap. Both drivers ran off track as a result, with Massa also picking up a left-front puncture in the process.
The stewards announced they would investigate the incident after the race, but having done so determined that ‘no driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for the collusion.’
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Alonso - who eventually finished in P5 after another late move on Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz - said over team radio that Massa had ‘closed the door’ on him, and that he was ‘already alongside him’ when he made the move.
“To get past the Williams today you needed to overtake them in different places, like tight, slow-speed corners, and quite forcefully,” Alonso added after the race. “It was tough but hopefully enjoyable for the fans.”
However, speaking after the race Massa disputed his former Ferrari team mate’s interpretation. “At the end, Fernando dived into the corner I was taking, hit my car and I got a puncture because of it,” he said. “It destroyed every opportunity I had to finish the race in sixth, and potentially fifth.”
After making a late pit stop for fresh tyres, Massa eventually finished seventh.
Also investigated by the stewards was Renault's Kevin Magnussen, who ran off track when completing a late pass on Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat for P11. The Dane was found to have left the track and gained a lasting advantage and was given a five-second penalty as a result, dropping him back behind Kvyat in the final standings.
Magnussen was also given two penalty points on his license, while in other penalty news, Ferrari were handed 5,000 Euro fine for an unsafe release of Kimi Raikkonen.
