McLaren Looking to Stronger Race

McLaren boss Ron Dennis said he was not surprised by the lack of pace of his drivers in today's qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix.

Championship leader Kimi Raikkonen was sixth fastest for the Woking-based outfit, while Scot teammate David Coulthard finished down in a disappointing 12th position nearly 1.5 seconds off the pace of pole-setter Michael Schumacher with the first of the Ferraris.

"The result of today's qualifying was not a great surprise," said Dennis. "However David's mistake cost him several grid positions whilst Kimi too made a small error. It is the race that matters and we will have to see how our strategy works."

Coulthard, who had topped the times in the warm-up session prior to qualifying, admitted he was disappointed with his performance.

"Obviously I'm disappointed," said Coulthard. "I was going well until Rivazza where I made a mistake, which a quick look at the telemetry showed cost me more than seven tenths of a second.

"As the first three races have shown this year anything can happen and I have done well from low grid positions before, but it's not going to be easy."