Ferrari Roar Louder Off the Track Than on It in Cheating War of Words

Ferrari may not have been able to keep pace with McLaren out on the circuit during the first free practice session for tomorrow's Hungarian grand prix here but the Italian team fired another salvo at their key rival as the controversy continued over whether or not McLaren gained performance advantage from the stolen technical documents found at the home of their chief designer, Mike Coughlan.

In particular the Ferrari top brass were outraged at allegations from Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal, to the effect that the Ferrari F2007 driven to victory in this year's Australian grand prix by Kimi Raikkonen did not conform to the regulations by virtue of the fact that it was fitted with an illegal flexible floor, which conferred an unfair aerodynamic boost.

Dennis's letter sought to demolish Ferrari's detailed contention that the British team had derived an on-track advantage from access to the illegally acquired Ferrari data. However, Ferrari did not back down and described McLaren's accusations as "both serious and false".

"Contrary to the statement put forward by Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, Ferrari never illegally gained any advantage [from the flexible floor]," read their official communiqué. "The two F2007 cars used in the Australian grand prix were deemed by the stewards to be in conformity with the technical regulations, before, during and at the end of the event. If there had been any illegalities, they would have been disqualified.

"In fact, what the FIA [the sport's governing body] did next is commonplace. The FIA took the opportunity to issue a clarification on the interpretation of the regulation and then asked the teams concerned to make the necessary modifications. There are actually numerous examples of this in both the recent and distant past which have also involved other teams. At the next sitting of the FIA international court of appeal Ferrari will fully explain its position on the entire matter."

Ferrari's statement came at the end of a day that had started with Nigel Stepney, the former Ferrari engineer recently sacked as the prime suspect in the Italian team's leak inquiry, releasing a statement through his Italian lawyer denying that he had tipped off McLaren about the Ferrari floor at that event.

"It's not true that I revealed those irregularities," the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport quoted Stepney's lawyer, Sonia Bartolini, as saying on his behalf. "You only needed to take a look at the car to realize what was wrong, it was obvious for people who work in formula one. At McLaren they knew without the need for whistle blowing."

Meanwhile, out on the circuit, Lewis Hamilton had to be satisfied with the third fastest time in the second free practice session after spinning his McLaren into the gravel with a couple of minutes to go as he struggled to avoid the Spyker team's new driver, Sakon Yamamoto.

"Today went smoothly, apart from my spin at the end of the second session which meant I missed out on my last run, so maybe I could have gone a little faster," said Hamilton. "The spin happened as I was catching Yamamoto on a flying lap and I was probably a little fast going into the corner. Despite this we were able to make some positive steps and I am confident with our performance so far."

Hamilton's team-mate, Fernando Alonso, set the quickest time of the day with Heikki Kovalainen's Renault second and Nico Rosberg fourth for Williams.

Hungaroring, Budapest

No of laps 70

Lap length 2.722 miles

Race distance 190.551 miles

Fastest lap 1m19.071s

M Schumacher, Ferrari, 2004

First used

1986

World championship races 21

Most wins Williams (7)

Pole position last year K Raikkonen, McLaren

Winner last year J Button, Honda

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