Yes I agree with you, but I dont think they would have started to fight as Massa was on the same pace as Alonso, he only dropped back after Alonso had passed him. If they were going to lose time flighting they should have held station then as they probably would have done had it been Massa in 2nd
Tbh we dont know what would have happened as they did not allow us to find out.
Alonso and Massa were fighting earlier in the race and still Vettel could not get close though. Plus we have all seen Vettel try and pass people, it does not happen
It was also clear in the race that Button was faster than Lewis, but Mclaren did not move Lewis out the way even though Webber was closer to Button than Vettel was to Alonso.
As I said its the silly reasons that Ferrari gave that have annoyed people, people are not stupid and there are enough people on F1 forums that have looked at the gap and lap time data.
I know its a silly rule as it happens all the time, just the 1st time it has been done like this in ages.
In 2008 Lewis passed Kovy after his pit stop and many people complained that Kovy was told to let him pass even though Kovy said he was not told. Ferrari took it to the FIA and they then listened to all the radio traffic, Kovy had indeed been given no order at all he did just let Lewis pass him so Lewis could go on to try and pass Massa and Piquet.
The race was rubbish anyway, just nothing happening and thats probably why this is such a big talking point along with felxi wings that Ferrari and rbr are running.
I am not saying you and Rob are wrong and I am right btw, it is a silly rule but it is there to stop teams doing what Ferrari done yesterday. They should have just told Massa he was short on fuel.
Edit. It now turns out Massa was given that message 2 laps before slowing down to let Alonso pass. Massa was actually setting the faster laps when he was told Alonso was faster, he had a 4 second lead.