Dennis: Tyre Performance Crucial at Hockenheim

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis claimed on Saturday that the surface of the new Hockenheim track has emphasised the importance of tyres and claimed his team could benefit from hotter conditions at Sunday's German Grand Prix.

Dennis' drivers Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard qualified fifth and ninth respectively as Bridgestone-shod Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher claimed pole position for his home race. Dennis, who insisted his team had the better tyre in France last weekend, predicted that warmer conditions on Sunday morning will help lay rubber on the new surface and improve conditions for the race.

"The forecast is about an hour and a half out of sync today but I think tomorrow is going to be a different animal," Dennis said. "It is going to be warmer earlier and if the weather forecasters are right we are going to have a very high ambient temperature over the morning and that will help the track surface.

"(In qualifying) we were trying to get something that isn't there when you are on this sort of tyre. But this is the nature of the tyre war and it is going to be ebb and flow. We were certainly on the better tyre in the last Grand Prix but perhaps it was a bit weaker today.

"I think the race will be a different matter. It is the track surface that has relevance here so you need heat on it for a long time."

McLaren, however, were outqualified by fellow Michelin runners BMW-Williams again as Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya ended second and fourth with Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello between them in third.

But Dennis insisted that he expects McLaren to have the better all-round race package after seeing his drivers get the better of Ralf Schumacher and Montoya in recent Grands Prix.

"Their qualifying pace has always been impressive through the early part of the season," Dennis said of Williams. "I think the fact that neither of them are on pole emphasises that the problem we have is tyres, but I think we have invested in the future.

"Tomorrow will be a different situation because it is one thing to do one quick lap and another to have a good stable race platform and I think that is what we should have for tomorrow. It is more likely the ability to increase revs. But our own engine performance is not so bad, we are creeping up on that, and it is really a tyre issue here."