Dennis impressed by Hamilton's approach

Hamilton, who has been backed by Dennis' team for the past ten years, is finally making his Formula One debut this weekend after a long winter of preparations, including several thousand kilometers of testing.

The 22-year-old, partnering two-time world champion Fernando Alonso this season, has shone since the first practice session on Friday, and continued showing his talent by qualifying in fourth place, less than three tenths of a second behind his Spanish teammate.

Dennis admitted he has been impressed by how Hamilton has approached the weekend, not making any mistakes and matching Alonso's pace.

"I think we have all been impressed and I would put myself into the category of being impressed by his coolness in practice," Dennis told reporters after qualifying. "Of course I said to Anthony, his father, really the rest of the weekend is a bonus on where he is.

"He hasn't put a foot wrong and he is going into his first race. I just hope that we don't have a Melbourne first corner incident that involves a quantity of cars and certainly not our cars because at the end of the day he is very much like Fernando.

"They are both very good qualifiers, but they are brilliant race drivers. Sometimes when you look back on his career and his racing in the past, he just doesn't give up. I hope he gets an opportunity tomorrow to show what he is made of and what his real strengths are.

"And it makes me smile when he says: 'I know my place.' It is a great line for him, but he has every intention of trying to beat Fernando tomorrow. No question. And it is great to have two racing drivers, two drivers that are really so excellent at racing. Hopefully we will have fun tomorrow.

"But there is no real sense of relief. He has always shown that he was going to be a great driver and today demonstrates that fact," added Dennis.

Despite Hamilton's success over the years, team boss Dennis is not expecting other teams to follow McLaren's route of supporting a driver for so long.

"The simple answer is no," said Dennis. "I feel so many people in F1 have got such a short term approach and this was something, that is not one year, it is 10 years of effort on his part.

"And both Mercedes-Benz and McLaren have equally contributed to the cost of Lewis' career to date, and we have guided him, but it is himself.

"It is him who has made it happen. He is the guy who has made the sacrifices. He is the guy who has really worked hard and the difference I suppose is that I can't tell my son what to do.

"As a parent that is impossible. But I can tell Lewis what to do. It is a completely different relationship, purely because as you know you follow this path and we continue to help - but if you deviate from the path then we won't help.

"I don't know if anybody has got that commitment that Norbert and I have brought it. It is not a new thing in the world of Mercedes-Benz, they have for years supported young drivers - they were the guys who supported Michael in the early days of his career and several other drivers that have come through to F1.

"The difference here is that it has happened at such an early age. Whether other people do it? Most people don't even think they are going to be in F1 for 10 years - let alone have a strategy that relates to 10 years. It is one of those things."