McLaren suspect Italian authorities' timing

Team boss Ron Dennis is one of seven people under investigation, and on Saturday he received from the prosecutor in Modena an "avviso di garanzia" - a legal notification notifying a person he is suspected of a crime and is being investigated.

The documents do not necessarily mean that charges will be forthcoming, however, and McLaren think the timing of the move by the Italian authorities was deliberate.

A statement issued by the team on Sunday said: "McLaren did receive some contact from the Italian authorities yesterday but were not charged with anything.

"We strongly suspect that the nature and timing of this wholly unnecessary contact, just before the start of qualifying, was to disrupt our preparation for this important session and Thursday's World Motor Sport Council hearing.

"McLaren are completely confident that were any proceedings of this type ever to be brought, we would be completely exonerated."

McLaren's criticisms of the timing of the Italian actions before qualifying has added further confusion to the sequence of events yesterday, with Dennis claiming in his regular press briefing late on Saturday afternoon that he was not aware of any contact with the Italian police.

When asked what he could say about rumours that the team were about to be served by a writ he said: "Nothing. Nothing has happened yet. If it happens, it happens. But it hasn't happened yet."

When asked to clarify whether or not the team had received documents from the Italian police he responded: "That's the same question! Nothing has happened so far. Maybe it is going to happen, but it hasn't happened."

McLaren face a fresh hearing of the FIA World Motor Sport Council on Thursday to discuss new evidence relating to the spy saga.

This revolves around an email exchange between test driver Pedro de la Rosa and world champion Fernando Alonso that allegedly discusses Ferrari set-up secrets.

The FIA has also confirmed to autosport.com that it has received further new evidence from the Italian authorities relating to telephone and SMS conversations between McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan and former Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney.

As revealed yesterday, it is understood that there are logs of hundreds of contacts between Coughlan and Stepney - some of which came on race weekends and which go beyond what has already been acknowledged.

An FIA spokesman said: "I can confirm that we have received new information from the Italian authorities."

The FIA has also made it clear that it did not contact McLaren sponsor Vodafone to help in its investigation into McLaren, as has been suggested in the Sunday Times newspaper today.

The spokesman added: "Vodafone may have been contacted by the Italian authorities, but they were not contacted by the FIA."