Motorsport: Argument rerun of bad blood

Greg Murphy

Yesterday's heated confrontation between Greg Murphy and Marcos Ambrose wasn't the first time the two have had a go at each other.

There is bad blood going back to at least last October when Murphy accused Ambrose of verbal abuse and unsporting and dangerous driving at the Gold Coast Indy.

Murphy and his team-mate Rick Kelly claimed Ambrose deliberately slammed on his brakes as they crossed the finish line while Kelly was trailing him, forcing the Holden driver to take evasive action to avoid crashing into Ambrose's Falcon.

They also accused Ambrose of calling Kelly "a little twerp" and threatening to run him into the wall if he followed Ambrose so close again.

Ambrose rejected both claims, although he was later fined for careless driving over the incident.

The bad feeling spilled over into a slanging match between Murphy and Ambrose at the post-race press conference.

As Ambrose was denying any wrongdoing, Murphy began asking him questions about whether he had slammed on the brakes.

A clearly rattled Ambrose accused Murphy of "ranting", and told the assembled media that the way Murphy was behaving was "a joke".