Alonso was handed a post-event drive-through, which became a 20-second time penalty, for the way he slowed up Russell as they battled for sixth place.
The FIA race stewards deemed that Alonso had driven in a “potentially” dangerous manner by slowing 100-metres earlier than normal, which they think contributed to Russell losing control behind him and crashing his Mercedes out of the race.
While the manner of Alonso’s sanction surprised a lot of people, Hulkenberg thinks that the Aston Martin driver was actually wrong to have driven in the way he did.
Asked by Motorsport.com for his views on the incident ahead of the Japanese GP, Hulkenberg said: “My personal view, when I saw it all, I wasn't very impressed with Fernando's tactics there to be honest.
“Melbourne, after all, it's kind of a street circuit. It's quite narrow there, we approach the corner with 260-270km/h, and it's a blind exit. And if, for whatever reason, the flag system or someone is late, and one of us would have T-boned George, I think the outcome and the way he feels might have been also quite different.
“So I think whilst that tactic is quite a common one in F1, in that particular corner, with that speed, with a blind exit, I think it's the wrong corner to do it – and produced quite a dangerous situation.”
Source: Autosport