High kerbs under fire

High kerbing has come under fire after David Coulthard suffered a tyre deflation that messed up his opening day of practice in Hungary for the second successive year

Coulthard hit the chicane kerb after a spin and McLaren boss Ron Dennis said: "Last year David paid a heavy penalty because the kerb was too high and now he had a similar accident. He only hit the kerb after spinning, so it wasn't the cause of the spin. The height of the kerb actually demounted the tyre as it hit sideways. It broke the bead and there was an instant deflation."

While admitting that it was the same for everyone, Dennis added: "I don't think high kerbs are very constructive either to slow the cars or keep them on the circuit. At Hockenheim now, we have these new run-off areas. No one took an advantage going off the circuit onto one of those higher friction areas. It was a disadvantage, but the best thing was that the car was able to rejoin the race or practice undamaged and I think that's a constructive way to move circuits forward.

"To have an obstacle that takes the car out of the race or practice seems counter-productive to everybody, not just the teams, so I think the way forward is the way that we're going, as illustrated in Hockenheim."