Formula One:Fernando Alonso led home a one-two finish for Ferrari in Sunday's German Grand Prix, albeit with the whiff of team orders hanging in the air. On the anniversary of a crash in Hungary a year ago that came close to costing him his life, Felipe Massa was forced to settle for second best at Hockenheim after leading for most of the opening 48 laps.
That was until he eventually gave way to Alonso after what appeared to be a coded message from the pit wall to allow the Spaniard by.
It helped Alonso to his 23rd career win, and his second this year that puts the double world champion firmly back in the title hunt as he now trails championship leader Lewis Hamilton by the 34 points, with the Briton forced to settle for fourth place.
Sebastian Vettel completed the podium, coming within a second of Massa towards the end, albeit he was never in a position to make a move for second place.
The McLarens of Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button were never in the hunt, finishing over 20 seconds behind Vettel.
Hamilton, though, has again managed to extend his lead over Button to 14 points, but the pace of the chasing pack means they are now closing in with Vettel and Webber - who was sixth - closing in.
It was an abysmal start from Vettel that cost him the win as he faced a two-pronged assault from the Ferraris and found himself skewered from both sides.
Clearly fearing the greater threat would be Alonso, Vettel moved to his right in a vain attempt to squeeze out the Spaniard.
But not only did the 23-year-old fail with that manoeuvre, he also left the door wide open for Massa to comfortably make his move to his left.
It was a case of 'thank you very much' from the Brazilian who, in the space of just a few hundred yards on the run down to the first corner, had moved from third on the grid to grab the lead.
With the two red machines out front, there followed a fascinating tussle between Massa and Alonso, most notably in the few laps after their switch to the harder tyres from the softer compound.
Massa clearly struggled to get his rubber up to temperature, which allowed a frustrated Alonso to crawl over the back of the 29-year-old.
The most notable was on lap 21 as backmarkers started to make their presence felt, at one point allowing Alonso to get his nose ahead on the straight heading into the hairpin.
Massa, though, had the line through the sharp right-hander, only to come under attack again through the stadium complex, but again just managed to hold sway.
A fuming Alonso expressed his anger over the radio when he said: "This is ridiculous", prompting intense discussions on the Ferrari pit wall.
Credit then to Massa as he soon responded, posting a number of fastest laps to increase his lead to 3.5secs.
That was arguably as Alonso was cooling himself down inside the cockpit of his car because he then launched another assault from the midway point of the race.
But on lap 47 Massa then received a message from engineer Rob Smedley who said: "Okay, so, Fernando is faster than you."
The inference of a team order, as Alonso was 31 points clear going into this race and in with a greater shot of the championship, was apparent.
Two laps later Alonso finally made his move stick, getting close enough to a very slow Massa coming out of the hairpin to then pass his team-mate down the short straight that immediately followed.
Smedley then radioed in again to Massa to say: "Good lad. Sorry."
Alonso then sailed off into the distance to win by 4.1secs, with Vettel just 0.9secs back, and as for the rest, they were nowhere.
After stepping out of their cars in parc ferme, Massa gave Alonso the cold shoulder as he attempted to embrace his team-mate, the sign clear that he was not happy.
Webber, who was forced to give up his chase of Button for fifth due to an oil problem, came home sixth and 14 seconds adrift of the Briton.
Such was the pace of the Ferrari, everybody else was lapped, with Renault's Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov seventh and 10th, sandwiching the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher.
Explaining away his battle with Massa, Alonso said: "In some parts of the race we were fighting for first and it was a little bit dangerous.
"I don't know what happened, but at the exit of turn six (the hairpin) I saw Felipe a little bit slow.
"Sometimes you are quick, sometimes you are slow, and in some parts I was quicker than him, so it's very difficult to judge.
"But it's a strong result for the team, and the car is improving. It's not a result down to the weather or anything like that.
"Hopefully we can have a strong weekend in Hungary next weekend and score more points for the team."
Massa, in contrast, was clearly not happy as he said: "The start was fantastic, and the pace on the soft tyres was great, but then I struggled a little."
Asked about Alonso's pass, he replied: "I don't need to say anything about that. He passed me."
On the Ferrari one-two he added: "We're doing a good job for the team. We're pushing hard, this was a very good track for us, but the car is becoming faster and faster.
"The best you can do is first and second, and as a team we have achieved the most possible from this race."
Vettel admitted to being slow off the start as he said: "The first five to 10 metres of acceleration were poor.
"I knew it was tight with Fernando and I was a little surprised when I saw Felipe to the left.
"But this was still a good result, and I'm in still in the fight for the championship."