Hamilton calls for unity

Lewis Hamilton has called on his McLaren team to reunite in the wake of a turbulent Hungarian Grand Prix weekend.

But whether bitter rival Fernando Alonso responds to Hamilton’s plea remains to be seen.

After a pole-to-flag victory at the Hungaroring to extend his championship lead over Alonso to seven points, Hamilton confirmed the reigning world champion was no longer speaking to him.

That follows a controversial qualifying session in which Alonso was adjudged by stewards to have unnecessarily impeded Hamilton, resulting in a five-place grid penalty.

An acrimonious disagreement followed, and now the relationship between the duo is clearly at an all-time low.

Not that Hamilton was too concerned when he said: “I have to admit that going into the race there was a big cloud over my mind, and it was difficult to stay focused.

“Because the team weren’t going to get any points, there was this feeling, so you didn’t know if the team hated you, they just hated the situation, or who they blamed. It was difficult.

“I just tried to come in with a smile on my face, tried to remain positive for everyone, and do the same procedure as always.

“So I went round the whole team and said: ’Come on, let’s do this. Good luck’. There was only one person that didn’t. That didn’t really affect me. I just got on and did my job.

“But in terms of speaking to the team, I’ve spoken to everyone and I’ve told everyone the situation. I've apologised if they feel I’ve done something against them.

“Going on from now we need to analyse the weekend, and we do need to sit down and talk as a team and reunite, and I have no worries about it.”

But following the war of words between Hamilton and Alonso, now there is just a simmering silence that will test team boss Ron Dennis’s man-management skills.

“He (Alonso) doesn’t seem to be speaking to me, so I don’t know if he has a problem,” added Hamilton.

“I hope he still speaks to me. I’m easy to get on with. I don’t hold grudges over anyone. But if he doesn’t want to speak to me, then that’s for him to decide. But I’m open. If I walk in and I see him then I will speak to him, but I am not going to go looking for him and make him feel better.”

Hamilton has at least cleared the air with Dennis following their four-letter bust-up over the team radio at the end of qualifying.

“I’ve been working with Ron for nearly 10 years now, so what has happened is quite a big event and a problem for the team,” said the 22-year-old.

“But we sat down, we spoke about it and came to a mutual understanding and started with a clean slate as from yesterday. The relationship we have is very strong and something like this is not going to come between us, so we will move on to bigger and better things.”

Alonso, starting from sixth on the grid, managed to finish fourth behind the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld in his BMW Sauber.

With six races remaining, Raikkonen is 20 points adrift, with team-mate Felipe Massa a further point down after failing to score in coming home 13th.

Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber), Ralf Schumacher (Toyota), Nico Rosberg (Williams) and Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) completed the top eight.

In the constructors’ championship, with McLaren denied their 15 points as part of the stewards’ penalty – albeit with a potential appeal pending – Ferrari have cut the gap to 19 points.