Spain rejoices over defeat of Hamilton, McLaren: "How dumb"

 "How dumb is Dennis!" the daily El Mundo said Monday of the McLaren-Mercedes boss Ron Dennis in an opinion piece.

 "In his eternal arrogance he will never admit it, but his sand castle vanished at the same time as the temperance and the security that his dauphin Hamilton showed until (the Japanese Grand Prix)," the sports daily Marca said of Dennis.

 The team's fiasco in Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix - the last of the Formula One season - was complete. Ahead of the race, the British Hamilton had a four-point advantage over Alonso and a seven-point lead over Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.

 However, he made crucial mistakes and had gearbox problem that served the championship on a platter for the "cavallino rampante."

   Dennis's worst nightmare came true, and Alonso's compatriots celebrated that as a victory.

 Hundreds of "Alonsoists" gathered Sunday in the Plaza de America in Oviedo, the double world champion's native town, to celebrate the defeat of Hamilton and Dennis, with whom the Spanish driver has been in bitter conflict throughout the season.

 "At least we have the consolation that Hamilton did not win," said the presenter of the news in the channel Telecinco.

 Telecinco - which has the television rights for F1 in Spain - said Monday that the Brazilian Grand Prix had a 57 per cent share of the TV audience, with 8,438,000 people.

 The dispute within the team set up a sort of trench war between the Spanish press and the British media, which clearly took sides for their country's driver.

 British tabloids called Alonso a "traitor" after he presented to the FIA e-mails compromising his team in a case of espionage for which McLaren-Mercedes was eventually fined 100 million dollars and the withdrawal of all points towards the constructors' championship.

 Monday, the words "harakiri," "rididule" or "gift" were frequent in the Spanish press, which hardly had time to regret Alonso's own defeat.

 The Spanish driver had said he would have "to do the impossible" to retain the title at the Interlagos circuit. He did not make it, but Raikkonen - for whom the task at hand was even more difficult - did.

 "Ferrari is a real team," the Spanish daily El Pais noted.

DPA