APRIL 30, 2001

Dennis quick to correct PR blunder

MCLAREN chief Ron Dennis has been quick to calm a possible internal disagreement at the team after he falsely accused David Coulthard of a failure before the start of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Coulthard's McLaren stalled on the starting grid as the cars moved away on the parade lap to leave him starting from the back of the grid and immediately after the race his team boss blamed driver error.

"I'm afraid to say I suspect that David had a bit of brain fade on his part," Dennis told Britain's ITV network.

But soon after, that comment was passed onto Coulthard who reacted with disappointment that Dennis had not discussed it with him before airing his view.

"I think Ron must have suffered a bit of brain fade saying that before he has spoken to me or the engineers," retaliated Coulthard.

But later Dennis backed down and admitted that his comments, which considered the team's initial conclusions to telemetry data of the start, were incorrect.

"Based on the initial analysis," said Dennis, "we felt that David was responsible for stalling on the dummy grid, but closer scrutiny confirmed that a glitch in the software was at fault."