Dennis rues McLaren's 'silly mistake'

And despite admitting this has been a clear breach of the regulations, Dennis emphasized there was no advantage to be gained by that error and hoped Hamilton will not be penalised severely for his team's mistake.

Hamilton is currently under investigation by the race stewards at Interlagos, along with Honda's Jenson Button and Super Aguri's Takuma Sato, for breach of article 25.3 of the F1 Sporting Regulations.

The article states: "No driver may use more than one set of wet and one set of extreme weather tyres during P1 and P2."

And while Dennis fully conceded his team had breached the regulations, he said the mistake only happened on a single installation lap and gave Hamilton no benefit.

"It was 100 percent the team's mistake," Dennis said. "Lewis did an installation lap on one set of wet tyres, and we just put on another set. It was 100 percent our fault.

"He only did an in-and-out lap, so there was no advantage, but it was clearly a breach of the rules. Two other people made the same mistake, and it is up to the stewards to decide on the penalty.

"We are trying maybe too hard, and it was a silly mistake. We can do no more than our best, and we are really trying hard. People make mistakes. I am not trivializing it.

"It just perhaps shows we are all human. I don't think anyone will imagine there was any advantage there at all. There is a rule there, we broke it, and we just have to get on with it."

Dennis, whose team has been excluded last month from the 2007 constructors' championship, was also humorous about the situation, adding: "I just hope the stewards don't take the constructors' championship points away - oh, wait, they've already done that!"