LAST RACE - 11th May

Ron: Sepang's not a true reflection of our pace

Monday 24th March 2008

Ron Dennis has downplayed McLaren's loss to Ferrari on Sunday, saying the Malaysian GP results aren't a true reflection of how the season will pan out.

While Lewis Hamilton dominated the first race of the season in Australia, it was Kimi Raikkonen to take control at Sepang this past weekend.

The Finn stormed to victory, 20 seconds ahead of Robert Kubica, while Heikki Kovalainen, the best-placed McLaren, was a further 20s back.

But despite being not being able to match Ferrari on Sunday, Dennis reckons it's still too early to tell which team is really on top.

"We don't really know what our pace is at the moment," Dennis said.

"We won't really know how competitive our car is until after Barcelona. As I have said before, Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain are very different circuits and do not reflect the true pace of the car.

"Barcelona will be where it is all at."

Dennis also acknowledged that Hamilton's pit stop blunder cost the Brit dearly as instead of stopping for about nine seconds, he was stationary for 19.

"The only drama we had in the race was the seized wheel nut. That effectively took away a third and fourth place for us," the McLaren team boss added.

"Other than that it was a fairly uneventful race, where the pace was dictated by back markers.

"But leading both Championships at this point in the season is not a bad place to be in."

After two races Hamilton has a three-point lead over Raikkonen in the standings, while McLaren are five pints ahead of BMW in the Constructors' Championship.

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