Domenicali: “‘team orders’ not a story”

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has dismissed Felipe Massa’s apparent disregard of an instruction to move aside for Fernando Alonso as a ‘non story’.

The Brazilian, having out-qualified his team-mate by three spots on the grid for the Japanese Grand Prix, was running ahead of Alonso in the early stages of the race when he received a coded call from engineer Rob Smedley that was widely interpreted as the instruction to move over and let the Spaniard through.

There were only eight laps on the board when ‘multi-function strategy A, multi-function strategy A – now please’ echoed in Massa’s helmet, but the Brazilian chose to ignore the order, forcing Alonso to click here for more