Dennis: Risk was Worth Taking
McLaren were right to let race leader Kimi Raikkonen try and nurse his damaged car home in Sunday's European Grand Prix despite his failure to finish, team boss Ron Dennis said
The decision backfired spectacularly on the final lap when vibrations caused by a damaged front wheel caused the car's suspension to shatter, allowing Renault's Championship leader Fernando Alonso through to victory.
"Life is full of risks," said Dennis, who said the decision was "100 percent right".
"Normally, this will take a couple of hours or a couple of days to come to terms with," he added.
"I believe in my mind we made the right decision. There was not sufficient evidence it was unsteady. We did what was necessary to win - almost.
"Obviously that phenomenal vibration overloaded some suspension component. I discussed it after the race with Kimi and he is comfortable that we took the right decision. We are here to win.
"Coming third with Alonso winning would of course have been better than what we had but we are fighting for the Championship and winning is what we want to do. We took a calculated risk and paid the price."
Raikkonen had looked on course for a third victory in a row after dominating the last two rounds of the Championship and taking the lead from the start of Sunday's race.
Alonso's victory gives the Spanish driver a 32-point lead in the title race.
"It's a shit feeling," was Raikkonen's blunt reply when asked how he felt.
"I am really frustrated to retire from the race in the lead on the very last lap having dominated throughout," he added. "We lost 10 valuable points in the Championship, however we will do our very best to try and win."
It was Raikkonen's second heartbreak at the Nurburgring in three years, with an engine failure forcing him out while leading at the circuit in 2003.
The Finn had started on pole position for the first time in his career at that race and the engine failure took on huge significance when Ferrari's Michael Schumacher went on to retain the world title by two points from the Finn.
"Naturally, it's possible that this incident could end up deciding the Championship at the end of the day," said Mercedes motorsport chief Norbert Haug.
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