Equal Rights?

SO,

The Championship is going to go to the wire in Brazil because of a stupid 40 mile-an-hour slide into the gravel for Lewis Hamilton on totally knackered tyres.

And while McLaren have shouldered the blame for not calling him in, it's hard to understand why Lewis himself didn't make the decision.

Surely as it was him who had the chassis squirming noticeably and continually under his arse, he should have thought better than to stay out as long as he did and jeopardise his championship chances.

While many would argue that Hamilton's lack of experience would cause him to wait for the teams call to pit, I would have thought that with the number of mistakes Lewis was making on the three laps up until that fateful attempt to make a stop would have surely made him re-think continuing as long as he did.

Of course, we also shouldn't forget that this is McLaren Mercedes' second monumental and race-destroying cock up in tyre calls, as it was Lewis' ill-fated gamble at the Nurburgring that left him in a sorry ninth place on a day that he had every opportunity to snatch victory.

But what is worryingly telling in this saga was that post race; Ron Dennis told Autosport that the delay on the call was due to the team worrying about Alonso.

He said: "The problem was rain and his [Hamilton's] tyres were in the worst condition. But we weren't at all fazed about Kimi. We weren't racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando."

Now, I'm the first to admit that I have long believed that Fernando Alonso demanding favouritism, and proving that he will go as far as blackmail to get it, was a pathetic attempt to win power and prominence within the team in the face of a mighty team mate. During this team, I was pleased with McLaren's decision to treat each driver equally as it gave Lewis a fair tilt at the title.

But now, as Hamilton had a solid chance to seal the title today, (and after Alonso's almost traitorous behaviour to the team during the Stepneygate fiasco and the likelihood that he will swiftly aim two fingers at the Woking boys in November) McLaren are surely overlooking the team's needs in their blind determination to maintain even treatment between it's drivers, and in doing so have left rivals Ferrari and Kimi Raikkonen with a shout at the Championship in Brazil.

Lewis has proved often the quicker, generally the more reliable, and certainly the most loyal of the team's two drivers, and on a day when he could have achieved the dream and won McLaren's first title since '99 and the first ever for a rookie, the team have admitted to being more worried about Alonso.

Call me a hypocrite and tell me I'm being totally favouritist towards Lewis if you will, but think. Today we should have all been celebrating the eigth British F1 World Champion, our first title since Damon Hill in '96 and McLaren's first in eight years. But we aren't.

And it's all thanks to McLaren's determination to maintain equality between two drivers who in light of certain events this year and with a McLaren Championship at stake, clearly don't deserve it.