Dennis Disappointed with McLaren Showing

McLaren team principal Ron Dennis was "very disappointed" with his team's performance in the Italian Grand Prix - but insisted the team will challenge for victory again before the end of the season.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen won McLaren's first race of the season in Belgium to revitalise the team but, with Raikkonen retiring early on with radiator problems, McLaren had to settle for David Coulthard's sixth place in Italy.

Coulthard fought his way through the field after deciding to change his intermediates for slicks during the warm-up lap - effectively starting his race from the back of the grid.

"We're very disappointed because we knew we had pace," said Dennis. "Kimi had a water leak after an impact at the first chicane with all the pushing around - it was a slow death. David was adamant it would stay wet long enough under trees for intermediates but we had to switch to dry.

"The emotional helter-skelter is something you become resilient to, but it is disappointing. We're a highly motivated Grand Prix team and highly focused on winning - and I think we can win at least one more race this season."

Coulthard added: "I thought we would be OK on the intermediates, but we had to change our minds. I think it was the best thing to do although we perhaps could have finished higher if we had gone for the slicks from the start."