Dennis: Coulthard's Errors 'Unacceptable'

McLaren-Mercedes team boss Ron Dennis said David Coulthard's errors during his flying lap in today's qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix were "unacceptable".

Coulthard completed an error-strewn run to finish 14th more than 1.5 second off his teammate Kimi Raikkonen's pace.

"I think he will be angry," Dennis said of Coulthard. "Three mistakes, not one. That is unacceptable. We are a team and have to support each other when we do things wrong and make mistakes. That's the way we are. He'll be tough on himself and we don't need to be any tougher."

Raikkonen had set the benchmark with his run and had been set for his first pole position at the A1-Ring, only for Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher to recover from an early error to snatch top spot by 0.039 seconds.

Dennis refused to be downbeat at missing out on pole and insisted Championship leader Raikkonen should be in contention for victory if the team's previous race strategies are anything to go by.

"We knew that we were on the front row already, but it would have been nice to be on pole," said Dennis. "We had a nice strategy and Kimi had a nice lap and we are comfortable. But the front row is where we need to be.

"You are looking at an optimised race strategy, sometimes it makes you a bit uncomfortable over the Saturday evening but as the race unfolds, we've proved to be right. And I don't think that tomorrow will be the exception."