Dennis comments on Magny-Cours

McLaren team principal Ron Dennis comments on the French Grand Prix

"The Mobil 1 French Grand Prix was a very confusing race, and it was very difficult for the marshals to see who was on which lap. Effectively that meant that the waving of the blue flags was not as disciplined as it could be, and then in the last round of pitstops we just lost a huge amount of time, basically four and a half seconds."

"The situation was that we had two Saubers racing each other a lap down and we had an ailing Alonso and Trulli. Sometimes things go in your favour and sometimes they don't. We had enough fuel to outrun Michael (Schumacher), but we ran into so much heavy traffic that we had to stop early. Then the two Renaults that we effectively stopped early for had engine blow outs, and Michael had a reasonably clear run."

"As it happens those earlier problems were then followed by a fueling rig fault on David's car when we had to take to the back up system. The refueller hadn't quite got the nozzle out of the car, when the chief mechanic let the car go. No one was hurt and David stopped very quickly to ensure that. But of course this did cost us time and we then had a rear disc explode in Kimi's car three laps from the end and he had to drive the last three laps with no rear brakes."

"With Kimi's car we used the engine as a supplement to the braking system and we were confused because he was still lapping in the 1minute 18s. The data said he had no brakes and Kimi said he had no rear brakes, but his lap times didn't reflect that and it was a pretty impressive feat! So at the end of the day I see the race as a damage limitation exercise. We conceded one point to Michael, and Kimi still lies second in the Drivers' World Championship."

-mclaren-