Lewis Hamilton drove like a bull and only escaped punishment because he isn’t Spanish, according his old foe Fernando Alonso.

The double world champion made the claims after being caught up in a melee on the opening corner of the Miami sprint won by Max Verstappen.

As it happened, the matter of a punishment for Hamilton’s extravagance was irrelevant in so much as he was handed a retrospective drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, which dropped him to a dismal 16th place from an on-road eighth.

‘We’ll see what they decide,’ Alonso goaded the stewards. ‘He was a little bit out of control. I guess they won’t decide anything because he is not Spanish.

‘But he ruined the race for a few people, especially Lando Norris, who had a very fast car and he was out in that incident.’

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Lewis Hamilton was accused of charging ‘like a bull’ by Fernando Alonso after one corner

Hamilton braked very late and appeared to tangle with Aston Martin’s unsuspecting Alonso

The drama unfolded when Hamilton, who started 12th, came hurtling down the inside. He braked very late and tangled with Aston Martin’s unsuspecting Alonso, who ricocheted into team-mate Lance Stroll, who then clipped McLaren’s Norris.

Norris and Stroll retired. The safety car was deployed. ‘Hamilton arrived like a bull,’ complained Alonso over the radio. The Spaniard suffered a puncture but returned to the fray, though right at the back, having started eighth. He finished 18th and last. Hamilton was unscathed.

‘There was a gap on the inside and I went for it,’ he protested.

The stewards looked into the incident but took no further action. It was a generous adjudication, though their declared policy is to show judicial leniency at starts.

There is plenty of history between Hamilton and Alonso, dating back to their acrimonious partnership at McLaren in 2007. They weren’t on speaking terms by the end of that feud.

More recently, they crashed at Belgium in 2022. Alonso called Hamilton an ‘idiot’, saying he only knew how to drive when he was at the front.

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The stewards looked into the incident but took no further action against the Mercedes driver

Max Verstappen won the sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix but it was a controversial race

Hamilton remained the centre of attention yesterday.

He duelled with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen for eighth place. Hamilton finally made the pass, but his speeding transgression under the safety car – 7mph too fast – sealed his fate. His Mercedes team-mate George Russell moved up to a disappointing 12th.

Verstappen, who beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and his fellow Red Bull man Sergio Perez into second and third places, extended his championship lead to 27 points.

There was no need for jousting where Verstappen operated.