Dennis Expects Tough Race for McLaren

McLaren-Mercedes team boss Ron Dennis says his squad will endure a tough Bahrain Grand Prix following a disappointing Saturday.

"It has been a difficult season so far and it is going to be a tough day tomorrow," Dennis said after the qualifying session.

Finland's Kimi Raikkonen will start from the back of the grid after taking the decision not to complete a qualifying lap as a result of his engine failure on Friday, which meant the McLaren driver would have been demoted 10 grid position. Teammate David Coulthard will begin from 10th.

McLaren have scored just four points from the first two races of the year and the qualifying display has left prospects for success in Bahrain looking bleak. Dennis said the team were not hiding and admitted they were critical of their own performance.

"We exist to win and if you don't you are not happy, but you have to be focused," said Dennis. "We are critical of our own performance internally but the car at certain circuits is incredibly quick and it is confusing. We have a big resource and if we could put a finger on the problem we would solve it quickly.

"We were three seconds per lap faster than last year in Malaysia and you would normally blitz the field like that. But there are teams who have made better cars than us and we have to accept that. We are not hiding. We cannot hide and if you have been competitive in the past as we have been then this situation is not the best experience. But this is when depth shows."

Criticism has been laid at the door of engine suppliers Mercedes, but Norbert Haug backed Dennis' stance that McLaren will come out of their recent run of form.

"We have a difficult time right now but one thing is for sure - we stay together and work as a team," he said. "It is tough to be relaxed and that is a good sign. We will make steps forward and we have steps in the pipeline.

"Here we have had two disastrous practice days but we chose a strategy for Kimi and I believe it is the right one. Our target now must be to finish in the points with both drivers."