McLaren 'Still Sore' About Magny-Cours Loss

McLaren chief Ron Dennis admitted today that he is 'still sore' after losing in controversial circumstances what looked set to be their second win of the season, at last weekend's French Grand Prix.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen, in his first year with the Woking-based outfit, was leading the race from Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and looking set to score his maiden win when, with five laps to go, he ran over an oil patch and went off the track, allowing the Ferrari driver to take the lead and eventually his fifth world title.

"We kicked him," joked Dennis when asked about Raikkonen's reactions in private, after the race. "No, seriously, we gave Kimi a nickname, 'iceman', and that's really what he is. I think that the pain really came only when he was on his own - that's the way I read it.

"We weren't harsh on him, because when you lead a race you are demonstrating the limit of the circuit to the drivers behind. And when you have a driver behind you like Michael Schumacher, he is going to take every opportunity that you will present him with.

"In the circumstances that lead to Kimi going reasonably wide, I think those circumstances could have as easily caught out Michael, because there was no oil flag, and while it wasn't an extreme level of oil, it was enough to cause Kimi a problem."

After the race, Dennis claimed that Schumacher had overtaken Raikkonen with yellow flags on the track, but the race stewards, who launched an investigation into the incident, deemed there was nothing wrong with the German's move.

Dennis admitted today the stewards' decision still upsets him, hinting that the decision was influenced by the fact that Schumacher's win in effect sealed the World Drivers' Championship.

"I still feel sore about the outcome," Dennis said when asked about the stewards' decision, "but under the circumstances that existed there, there was no chance to expect any other outcome.

"But I think that the videos and photographs of the incident say it all. Michael himself said, 'I was waiting for the instructions to allow Kimi past me'. So there's enough ambiguity in the whole thing. As I said, I'm a bit sore about it, but now is not the right venue to sort it out."