Grapevine: Coulthard Made to Wait for New Mercedes

David Coulthard has been snubbed by his Mercedes-Benz bosses after he tried to buy a £250,000 company car, according to a report in Scotland's Sunday Mail newspaper.

The McLaren driver twice specially requested the 210 mph Mercedes SLR sports car, according to the paper, but without any success. He was told he would have to go on the waiting list with everyone else for the limited edition supercoupe.

Coulthard also failed to appear at the Frankfurt launch of the car, where teammate Kimi Raikkonen and test and reserve driver Alex Wurz tested the new Mercedes instead. Coulthard, who already has a fleet of luxury cars, insisted he is happy to wait and shell out for one of the first 500 of the cars to be made.

A friend of Coulthard was quoted as saying: "The price tag is a drop in the ocean for him. If he's driving one of these things, it's brilliant publicity for the company and the usual form is that the drivers would score a freebie. He's going on the waiting list anyway. He might drive supercars for a living, but he doesn't want to miss out on the thrill of owning one of these."

The car was built by McLaren in conjunction with luxury car makers DaimlerChrysler. The two-seater, built in Woking, Surrey, by McLaren, has distinctive "gull-wing" doors, a Formula One-style carbon-fibre crash structure and ceramic brake discs. It goes from 0-62 mph in 3.8 seconds and rivals Formula One cars for speed. Only 3500 will be built in the next seven years.