Lewis Hamilton has paid tribute to former teammate Fernando Alonso, revealing that the Spaniard was among the first to congratulate him after winning the 2008 title at Interlagos last weekend.

"He came over as I saw my team," Hamilton told reporters at Mercedes' annual 'Stars and Cars' event in Stuttgart yesterday. "I turned round and he was there, just to wish me congratulations. Then he said congratulations to the rest of the team.

"It was great to see him in the garage," Hamilton admitted. "I had a huge amount of respect for him already, but it took a big man to come and do that so I was very thankful to him."

While there appeared to be a good relationship between the two when they first joined forces at McLaren last year, the situation soon deteriorated, and by the end of the season it was almost all-out warfare.

Alonso left McLaren and returned to Renault, however, many of the Spaniard's supporters felt their hero had been forced out of the Woking team by the English rookie. It was this resentment from some of Alonso's 'fans' that led to the much publicised event at Barcelona in February and the recent postings on a Spanish website.

However, Alonso hardly helped the situation when he said that Massa deserved the title more than Hamilton and that he would try to assist the Brazilian in his fight for the championship.

With Hamilton and Alonso now appearing to have buried the hatchet, it is to be hoped that the Spaniard's supporters will do likewise and call an end to their intimidation of the English youngster and his team.