The double world champion's Ferrari team were fined after benefitting from team orders in Germany on Sunday.But Mirror Sport can exclusively reveal that this is not the first time Alonso has been linked to such a controversy.
Paddock sources say he had talks with McLaren bosses Martin Whitmarsh and Ron Dennis on the morning of the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix.
After a controversial qualifying session, Alonso demanded McLaren give him priority within the team. The day before, his rivalry with Hamilton over the world championship had burst into the open with an on-track confrontation.
Alonso had roared to pole, but only by blocking his teammate and preventing him getting in a fast lap.
Stewards dropped the Spaniard to sixth and Hamilton was elevated to pole.
On race-day, Hamilton roared to victory to stretch his lead in the title race to seven points.
Alonso charged to fourth to reduce the damage caused by his own dubious tactics.
It is claimed that on the morning of the event he confronted the team and wanted to be given preferrential treatment on the track over his rookie team-mate, but that McLaren refused to do so. And months later they lost the world title by a single point. Alonso's manager, Luis Abad, denied the 2007 claim when he said: "I don't want to talk about it but in any case, it's not true."
Last night team boss Whitmarsh refused to comment specifically on that day in Hungary three years ago.
But he said Britain's top team would never stoop to favouritism and the tactics that see Ferrari in the dock over Sunday's German GP, facing a possible ban from the sport. "There is no doubt that this team desperately wants to win world championships," said Whitmarsh.
"We are immensely competitive and it does cause most of us a physical pain when we are not winning. It is a deeply unpleasant experience and that drives us on.
"During 2007 we sacrificed a world championship. We lost a championship by one point.
"Had we leaned to the advantage of one of our two drivers that year - and there were lots of temptations to do so - then it would have made enough of a difference to have acquired the extra point to have won the championship.
"During that phase I remember talking to the drivers and their management and saying what a great driver would want to do is look at himself in the mirror and say 'I have won this world championship on merit' and not by the team leaning one way and giving him an advantage.
"If McLaren won a championship where I think we did something dodgy to achieve it... if you did the record book might show it but in your heart I don't think you would have the same feeling of pleasure.
"If you win against the odds it is slightly more enjoyable. If you win when you have swayed it to your advantage by cheating or doing something unsporting, you would not feel so good.
Source: The Mirror
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