F1 reports that Alonso, who started second on the grid behind Sebastian Vettel, recovered after being overtaken at the beginning by Massa, who held off his surging teammate until the 49th lap of 67.

Then he appeared to let the Spaniard through after being told on his radio that he was the slower of the two drivers.

Massa’s race engineer Rob Smedley told him: "Alonso is faster than you. Can you confirm you understand?" Then when Alonso went through, Smedley added: "Good lad — just stick with it now, sorry."

It appeared to be a tactical decision by the Italian outfit, with Brazilian Massa trailing Alonso by 31 points in the overall standings before the race.

Alonso, who also won in Bahrain, stayed in fifth place but closed to within 34 points of leader Lewis Hamilton with eight races left. He pulled clear to win by 4.1 seconds, twice setting the fastest lap of the race.

Ferrari may be stripped of first and second places in today’s German grand prix after being found guilty of a breach of the rules regarding team orders