by Gordon Howard
Australian Mark Webber has said Ferrari were right to initiate
team orders during the German Grand Prix and that Fernando Alonso
fully deserved to win the race.

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa handed the Hockenheim victory to
teammate Alonso after being told over the team radio that the
Spaniard was the quicker driver.

Ferrari have since been fined 100,000 dollars for breaking the
rules banning team orders, and the matter will be brought before
the FIA's World Motor Sports Council
But Red Bull driver Webber believes that Massa, who had led for
the majority of the race, was given every chance to win.

"They gave Felipe a good opportunity to win the grand prix as
well," said Webber ahead of Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

"They gave him the chance to win the race up to the point where
he couldn't pull away from Fernando.

"Obviously they had a decision in the team where the fastest guy
in the team wins the race. The fastest guy on that day won the
race."

"I still believe Massa has a chance to win this race here - a
real chance to win. If he is fast enough to disappear, he will win
the race. That was the opportunity he also had at Hockenheim.

"His first stint at Hockenheim was incredible, a very good first
stint. The second stint obviously just wasn't quite fast enough to
avoid the positions being moved around because they wanted the
faster guy to win the grand prix."
Webber added that team orders are commonplace and would rather
see teams implementing them openly rather than slow pitstops or
pre-arranged overtakes.

"Very, very, very difficult to control team orders. They've been
happening for 40 years in the sport and they'll happen in the
future," he said.

"Obviously for the fans, you can understand it was a different
thing, but it's happened so many times since 2002. For the victory
it's a different thing, but the people who think it's the first
time it's happened are absolutely dreaming. It's not the only
time."
"That's the way it is. If you have a two-car team, three-car
team, four-car team, there's always going to be certain situations
at certain tracks and certain points in championships where one car
is going to need to be in a definite position and the team can
influence that - so they will.

"It's better than doing a deliberate bad pitstop, or whatever.

You can do so many things to make it hard, so to try and have a
rule which says that you cannot manipulate or have a team order in
a grand prix is virtually impossible.

"I could agree something tonight between you and me in the hotel
and it would be done.