Winning can heal the hurt, Alonso tells Hamilton

By Alan Baldwin

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Fernando Alonso showed former foe Lewis Hamilton the road to redemption on Thursday after Britain's Formula One champion faced questions about his tarnished reputation.

The 24-year-old Hamilton has been heavily criticised since he and his McLaren team were excluded from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix race classification for deliberately misleading the Melbourne race stewards.

Former great Stirling Moss said he felt let down by the youngster while the sport's world governing body handed Mercedes-powered McLaren a suspended three-race ban for their actions at a hearing in Paris last week.

"To really help the reputation or whatever he has damaged now I think will really be very easy. If he keeps winning, he will make people his supporters," Alonso told a Spanish Grand Prix news conference with Hamilton sitting alongside.

"That's the important thing. Doing our job to the maximum, winning races and championships. This is the best thing you can do," he added.

Alonso, Renault's double world champion, was Hamilton's team mate at McLaren in an acrimonious 2007 season that saw their initial friendship deteriorate into a feud as they fought for the title.

The Spaniard said on Thursday his quarrel had never been with Hamilton, only with the McLaren 'big bosses' and their philosophy, and even went so far as to say that he missed him as a team mate.