Dennis rails at French flag marshals

Both Raikkonen and Coulthard lost places to the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher in the second half of the race on Sunday, with Kimi in particular blaming traffic for losing him third position.

"Perhaps it's understandable that when the first five cars are quite strung out it's a little more difficult for the marshals to understand exactly which drivers are in what position," said Dennis. "Even so it was extremely frustrating for both David and Kimi to lose so much time when overtaking backmarkers."

Dennis admitted that McLaren struggled more than it expected to at Magny-Cours, despite a strong start to the race when Raikkonen leapt ahead of Schumacher into the first corner.

"Neither car's performance was perfect," he added. "David suffered a fuel rig problem and Kimi a rear brake disk failure three laps from the end of the race. In the circumstances the single point differential to Michael fell squarely into the category of damage limitation. This year we have a fantastically competitive World Championship and I'm sure that all the contenders will fight to the end, we certainly will."

Raikkonen is now eight points behind Schumacher in the title race.