Japan Sunday quotes: McLaren

"There are positives to take from today; I've only lost two points to Felipe in the drivers' championship, so it's definitely not over. Now I'll forget today ever happened and move forward; we've got two more races to go and my target is still to win both of them."

Heikki Kovalainen - DNF: "Today started with so much promise and ended so disappointingly. I made a good start and, although I ran wide at the first corner, I still managed to slot in behind Robert and Fernando. I was feeling pretty confident about catching them both because the car was feeling just fantastic and then, all of a sudden, the engine stopped. That was a real pity because our reliability has been fantastic all season. Nevertheless, my pace today was good and I head to China feeling positive that we can once again show the same sort of pace we had this weekend."

Ron Dennis: "Well, today was a very challenging day. We were a bit surprised that Lewis was given a penalty in respect of the first-corner incident, simply because we've all seen similar first-corner incidents that triggered no such penalty. Drivers miss braking points, they run wide; these things happen.

"As for Heikki, he was in a very strong position, fuelled significantly longer than the cars around him, when he suffered an extremely rare engine failure. All in all, then, as far as the championship is concerned, I guess things could have been worse; but there's no getting away from the fact that it was a disappointing weekend. However, Lewis is still five points clear in the drivers' championship, with two races to go, and I know that our whole team will dig deep from here on in."

Norbert Haug: "A chaotic start and one lap later Felipe ruined Lewis's race when he first ran wide and then cut the chicane short and pushed Lewis into a spin. The next grand prix will be held already next weekend and neither Felipe nor Ferrari benefited too much from today's result. Despite Felipe's action, Lewis still leads the drivers' championship. We will investigate the engine failure on Heikki's car tonight and tomorrow in Brixworth.

"Unfortunately this failure happened today when Heikki had a chance of winning; he was third, had the speed and was on the superior strategy. I am sorry for him and the team, it's bad that things like this happen even if you previously performed reliably for two years. But we will work hard to make sure that such a failure will not happen again."