Alonso 'threatened to Expose Mclaren' If Not Made No 1

The rivalry between McLaren's formula one drivers Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso reached such a pitch that the Spanish world champion threatened to reveal damaging data obtained illegally from Ferrari to the sport's governing body unless he was made the team's official number one driver, it was alleged yesterday.

During the row, which occurred five weeks ago at the Hungarian grand prix, Alonso was reported by witnesses to have told the McLaren team principal Ron Dennis: "Either make me No 1 or let me go," and threatened to take the Ferrari information to sport's governing body, the FIA.

A McLaren source said Dennis called Alonso's bluff and told him he should go ahead. Dennis then telephoned the FIA's president, Max Mosley, to warn him that Alonso might be in touch. In the event Alonso retracted the threat and the allegation was never formally made by the Spanish driver, so Dennis shouldered the responsibility for confirming to the governing body that his team had been in possession of the Ferrari data.

"I want to stress that once I became aware that new evidence might exist, which I did on the morning of the Hungarian grand prix [August 5], I immediately phoned the FIA to keep them informed," Dennis said yesterday. On Thursday the team was fined $100m (£50m) and lost all its constructor's points for being in possession of the illegal data.

Alonso denies the allegation, his manager Luis Garcia saying yesterday. "There is nothing in it. I have nothing to say. It is complete rubbish," he said.

Hamilton currently leads the drivers' world championship ahead of Alonso. The Spaniard joined the team from Renault at the start of the season on a £10m-a-year contract over two years whereas Hamilton, in his rookie year as a driver and on £340,000, has come up through the ranks and with four races remaining could take the title in his first year.

There has been a fractious relationship between the two men this season, most notably in the pits at Hungary when Alonso was penalized for preventing Hamilton from doing a final lap in qualifying for the grid. There was also controversy at Monaco in May where Hamilton believed he was quicker but was forced to stay in second place during the race, and a battle at Indianapolis in June where Alonso felt he was the faster but could not find a way past the victorious Hamilton.

Earlier in the year Alonso said: "Right from the start I've never felt totally comfortable. I have a British team-mate in a British team, and he's doing a great job and we know that all the support and help is going to him and I understood that from the beginning." If Alonso negotiates a termination of his McLaren contract there is speculation that he might return to Renault, or even sit out the 2008 season.

But McLaren's chief executive, Martin Whitmarsh, would neither confirm nor deny there were problems with the team's relationship with Alonso. "Fernando and McLaren have a long-term contract with each other," he said at a practice session for the Belgian grand prix, where Alonso set the fastest time yesterday.