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Ron Dennis Q&A

The rollercoaster battle for the World Championship continued to move in Ferrari's direction after a frustrating outing for McLaren at Indianapolis. Mika Hakkinen retired with an engine failure while closing in on race leader Michael Schumacher, while after a stop and go penalty for jumping the start David Coulthard could only recover to fifth place. Mika is now eight points adrift in the title battle. Adam Cooper spoke to team boss Ron Dennis



"It's more difficult. We just have to win the last two races, that's all we have to do."



"No. It was a bit of a marginal call, but he appreciated that it was on the limit. But it was important to get into the first corner first."



"No, it was definitely just down to him. He was keen to get into the first corner."



"Well, he stalled in Canada, but yeah, sure. You pay for your mistakes in life."



"No, because we effectively had the car set for the dry. We thought the faster we could get onto dry settings the better, because the car would be better balanced. It was probably a lap or two early, but in the end lap times said it all really. Pulling Michael back wouldn't have been a problem, and I don't think overtaking him would have been either. We had the ability to win the race, and save for the engine failure, I think that's what we would have done."



"No, he was just a little cautious. We felt that we were going to be quick, we thought we had the right strategy, the right fuel load, and I think that proved to be the case."



"I think it's just a question of fuel loads. They were obviously set very light on downforce, which means when the circuit's damp you can't overtake on the slow bits and if they're quick on the straight, that makes life quite difficult. That's just motor racing."



"I actually think it was a good race. It would have been a better race if there had been a bit more of a fight up the front. There was plenty of overtaking, thanks to the slipstreaming nature of this circuit into an open corner. People want to know what you need for overtaking, and there you go, that's what you need."



"They've gone to a great deal of trouble. It could always have been better, but that's always the case, isn't it?"

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