Fernando Alonso, the former teammate of Lewis Hamilton at McLaren Mercedes, suggested yesterday that the British driver should have expected the abuse he was subjected to at a Formula One test session in Spain three weeks ago.

In an interview with Cadena Ser, the Spanish radio station, during this week’s testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, the Spaniard said he believed that the anger directed at Hamilton was triggered by the Briton’s comments that last season Alonso had shown him “just how not to behave as a world champion”.

“I didn’t take any notice [when he said that], but the very next week they [the fans] whistled at him in Spain for saying that,” Alonso said. “If you talk like that, it’s no wonder they jeer you.”

For the second time in a week, Alonso, who drives for Renault, suggested that the racist element in the taunting that Hamilton was subjected to in Barcelona, which came from Spanish fans, some of whom had blackened their faces, may have been exaggerated. “If nobody knows exactly what was said to him, it is difficult,” Alonso said. “I haven’t seen any of that on the television. If it happened, then it must be strongly condemned, but if it didn’t, then it is quite a nasty trick. A few of those and the FIA could leave Spain without any races.”

The two-times world champion was making a reference to threats by the sport’s governing body to cancel one or both of the grands prix in Spain this season if the authorities do not clamp down on the issue.

Alonso’s scepticism suggests that he may not have seen the original reports from the Circuit de Catalunya, quoting Spanish journalists as saying that Hamilton was booed and insulted every time he made his way from the team motorhome to the pits. A large section of the crowd was involved and insulting language was heard, including fans calling Hamilton a “black s***”.

Alonso also said that Hamilton is not the only driver who has been insulted in Formula One, citing his own treatment by sections of the crowd in Monza last season, when he won the Italian Grand Prix. “When I did my lap of honour, the people were making obscene gestures. That’s sport,” Alonso said.

As far as his relationship with Hamilton is concerned, Alonso said that there had been no change. “It’s the same as last year, nonexistent,” he said. This makes a mockery of McLaren’s attempts throughout most of last season to portray the feuding drivers as good friends.

Alonso’s comments come as it has emerged that Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One’s commercial rights holder, has stepped in to broker a deal with the sport’s team principals, allowing McLaren to occupy the fifth garage from the top of the pitlane this season. It had been assumed that McLaren would be at the bottom of the pitlane at every circuit, having been disqualified from the 2007 constructors’ championship for cheating.

But in what is thought to be an attempt to appease Mercedes, McLaren’s German partner, Ecclestone has negotiated a deal whereby McLaren will slot in after Williams and ahead of Red Bull. The agreement, confirmed by sources at McLaren, means that the Woking-based team’s large circular motorhome will have enough space in the paddock to be deployed at all European circuits.

In Barcelona, the final test session of the winter before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix came to a close yesterday, with Jarno Trulli, the veteran Toyota driver, topping the timing sheets from David Coulthard, for Red Bull. Alonso was seventh-quickest, with Hamilton tenth.