Frentzen win a red herring, says Irvine

The Ferrari driver, who finished sixth in the Italian Grand Prix, has ruled out the threat of Sunday's race winner beating him and McLaren's Mika Hakkinen to the title.

'In theory, Heinz-Harald Frentzen's win at Monza puts him in the running for the title along with me and Mika,' said the Ulsterman in his column in The Express newspaper.

'But the truth is, he is just a red herring.

'Much as I respect what my old boss Eddie Jordan has done with his team, Heinz-Harald's victory was down to the fact this track suited their car.'

Irvine believes his biggest challenge will come from Hakkinen - despite the fact a mistake put him out of Sunday's race.

'It will all come down to a scrap between me and Hakkinen,' he commented, 'because David Coulthard is out of the reckoning after yet another poor result.

'It's going to be difficult because McLaren still have the better car.

'So we will have to rely on better strategy, better reliability and on them making more mistakes.'