Dennis Hits Out at Ferrari's Tactics

McLaren-Mercedes boss Ron Dennis hit out at the 'farcical' tactics of World Champions Ferrari after they deliberately asked their drivers to spin their cars in pre-qualifying.

German Michael Schumacher spun at Becketts on his first flying lap and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello drove his car off the track on his run after the team asked them to subtly set slow laps to improve their chances in qualifying.

Heavy rain was expected to disrupt the grid-deciding session - which runs immediately after pre-qualifying - and Ferrari wanted to run early to set a time on a dry track.

Dennis's team employed the same tactics by simply asking their drivers to set a slow time on their laps but he found Ferrari's pointless attempts to hide their plans from their rivals ridiculous.

"I think if you want to use the word farce then you can use it for one team that deliberately spun its cars and expected all the other teams to believe that it was an accident," said Dennis.

"That is farcical. The reality is that the teams have to calculate where they should be in the running order and I prefer to be a little bit more authentic about the strategy."

Ferrari technical director admitted after the event that they had employed slowing tactics and said that the team had "tried to do it in such a way that other teams would not understand our intentions."

But Dennis clearly did not hear Brawn's admission and he added: "It is not so much that (they did it) but that they maintained the position, after qualifying, that it was an accident."