So do you think Hamilton has a chance tomorrow. Alonso was fastest yesterday.

So far it looks like Alonso all the way.

What the hell is going on with Raikonnen. If he doesn't show up then Mclaren will claim both driver and constructors title.

Massa still too erratic.

I am hoping Alonso crashes and Hamilton wins.

Hamilton starts from pole position tomorrow.

Well, Hamilton's won it --- first in his frigging career ! McClaren's on a high !!! where in the world is ferarri 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6485571.stm

NICE YOUNG LAD

good one for the kid!
great for his dad too

Do i smell a hint of Jealousy and racism here

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/motorsport/story/0,,2101091,00.html

ALONSO should know better, is it Hamilton's fault he is better Alonso "don't hate the Playa, hate the Game!!"

GOONER 89

Its natural, ironic he is saying he isn't moaning. Its clear Hamilton has been more consistent this season and I feel if he continues this way he has a good chance of winning the championship. Can't say that about Alonso too many errors in his driving like trying desperately to get into pole postion immediately the race starts.

Not a big fan of F1 anymore used to be back in the days of Schumacher i started watching F1 when i was about 8 years old or thereabout those where the days of Damon Hill, Late Ayrton Senna,Alain Prost Nigel Mansell and even Jacques Villeneuve

Errr!! Shumy just retired last year

Anyway i am loving it now cause of Hamilton (I am Black and i am Proud )

Seems Mclaren is stepping in to diffuse the tension between their 2 stars before it gets out of hand;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/6747401.stm

SHAME ON YOU ALONSO You can't keep a Black man down

GOONER 89

Louis Hamilton to win the Drivers championship

Hamilton on ploe position again today

looks like there's a new face of domination in the nu' generation F1 circuit & he's brit & black !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/6761857.stm

Massa & Raikkonen 3^rd & 4^th respectively --- sure ain't looking like Ferrari's season !

Ferrari fight back in France

Ferrari have demonstrated that rivals McLaren Mercedes might not have things all their own way this season after drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa scored a dominant one-two in the French Grand Prix.

The early-season favourites had fallen behind McLaren over the course of recent races but, after setting the pace in testing at Silverstone last week, the Scuderia hit back in style at Magny-Cours.

[url]http://msnsport.skysports.com/list.aspx hlid=474645&CPID=583&clid=3713&lid=2579&title=Ferrari+fight+back+in+France[/url]

I can overhaul Hamilton - Alonso

Hamilton leads Alonso by 14 points in the championship
Fernando Alonso is adamant he can overhaul McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton's 14-point lead in the Formula One drivers' championship.
However, the defending world champion believes McLaren would prefer Hamilton to win Sunday's British Grand Prix.

"I am convinced the 14-point difference will disappear and to be able to reduce that deficit in his home would give me a morale boost," said Alonso.

"They'd prefer Hamilton to win, I don't think there will be any argument."

Alonso's claim about McLaren's preference for a Hamilton victory at Silverstone is the latest in a series of remarks by the world champion betraying his discomfort with his situation at the team, who he joined this year.

"If he wins it helps the team. The team wanted me to win in Barcelona and they want Hamilton to win at Silverstone," the Spaniard added.

"We will be in England and we have a Spanish driver and an English driver and the Englishman is leading the championship."

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis insists he is remaining emotionally detached as he balances the needs of his two drivers and the team as a whole.

Alonso has struggled to adapt to his new team, while Hamilton has been a sensation and is on his way to making history by becoming the first driver to win the title in his first season.

Dennis said: "One of the problems we have in the team at the moment is that we are all trying to behave correctly, and do the right thing and try to be balanced in how we respond to the success and failure of the team as a whole and the drivers.

"I am phenomenally fond of both drivers. I have a huge respect for Fernando's achievements and clearly I have respect for what Lewis has achieved this season and in the rest of his career.

"But I will not allow myself to indulge in emotion that is counter-productive to the interest of the team.



"I close down, come to the race, and try to be absolutely professional," added Dennis.

Dennis last month stepped in to try to prevent problems arising between the drivers by asking them to not talk about each other when they were not in the same room.

The team boss was concerned the duo were being misquoted when talking about one another following the United States Grand Prix, but Alonso denied such an arrangement had been made.

Source: bbc sport.

first ferrari one-two of the season, nice to see Kimi start to justify his huge paycheck though i would have preferred a massa win, important thing is that we're starting to close the gap, Silverstone is anybody's race i.e. the top 4 drivers, i hope the reds triumph. whats ur take on the snitch - Nigel Stepney? that chap should be jailed, honestly,

i think alonso should just shut up & race, thats what real champs do, let ur drive do the talking.

Tomorrows qualifiers is going to be exciting .



Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari look in ominously good form ahead of Sunday's British Grand Prix.

The Finn, who won in France last weekend, was comfortably quicker than team-mate Felipe Massa and both McLarens in Friday's second practice.

Raikkonen's best lap of one minute 20.639 seconds was 0.449secs quicker than Massa. Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest nearly 0.75secs behind.

Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso was down in sixth.

Hamilton, who leads the world championship by 14 points, had been fastest in the day's first 90-minute session, with Raikkonen and Massa just behind him.

Despite having a less successful afternoon, he was happy to take positives from his morning's display.

"The first session went well," he said.

"I don't know what fuel loads everyone was on in the afternoon, but we weren't focused on going out there to be fastest. We'll have to go back through the data, but I'm quite optimistic - I still think we'll be able to battle with the Ferraris."

Alonso had the edge on Hamilton early in the morning session, but failed to keep pace as the day progressed.

The world champion ended the session 0.575secs adrift of Hamilton, and was 0.317secs slower in the afternoon.

As often happens in Friday practice, slower cars appeared in among the Ferraris and McLarens at the top of the times as the teams went about their programmes evaluating different set-ups for the race.

And despite the Ferraris' apparent superiority, it is notoriously difficult to predict form from the Friday times as the teams do not reveal the specification in which they run their cars.

In the afternoon, Ralf Schumacher's Toyota - which will almost certainly struggle to make it into the top 10 on pace - was third fastest.

His team-mate Jarno Trulli, who was eighth on the grid in France, was fifth, ahead of Alonso.

Williams's Nico Rosberg was fifth fastest in the morning session, nearly a second behind Hamilton.

The BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were next, followed by Rosberg's team-mate Alexander Wurz and the Toyota of Jarno Trulli and Englishman Anthony Davidson's Super Aguri.

Strong winds made conditions tricky for the drivers at the exposed Silverstone circuit, and several had spins.

Among them was Scot David Coulthard in the Red Bull, whose car is sporting a new livery for this weekend.

Coulthard ended the first session 18th. In the afternoon, after it had been announced that he would be staying at Red Bull for another season, Coulthard moved up to 14th.

Englishman Jenson Button had to sit out the afternoon session for treatment on a bad back. His compatriot Anthony Davidson was 10 th for Super Aguri, behind the Williams cars of Nico Rosberg and Alexander Wurz and Coulthard's team-mate Mark Webber.

Times from second practice session (Fri):

1 K Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:20.639

2 F Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1:21.138

3 R Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:21.381

4 L Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.381

5 J Trulli (It) Toyota 1:21.467

6 F Alonso (Sp) McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.616

7 N Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 1:21.619

8 A Wurz (Aut) Williams-Toyota 1:21.650

9 M Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 1:22.137

10 A Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda 1:22.143

11 H Kovalainen (Fin) Renault 1:22.189

12 G Fisichella (It) Renault 1:22.257

13 R Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:22.372

14 D Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault 1:22.428

15 N Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:22.486

16 T Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri Honda 1:22.487

17 R Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:22.511

18 C Klien (Aut) Honda 1:22.833

19 S Speed (US) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:22.840

20 V Liuzzi (It) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:23.105

21 C Albers (Ned) Spyker-Ferrari 1 1:23.113

22 A Sutil (Ger) Spyker-Ferrari 1 1:23.720


Times from first practice session (Fri):

1 L Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.100

2 K Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:21.211

3 F Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1:21.285

4 F Alonso (Spn) McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.675

5 N Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 1:22.006

6 R Kubica (Pol) BMW-Sauber 1:22.107

7 N Heidfeld (Ger) BMW-Sauber 1:22.176

8 A Wurz (Aut) Williams-Toyota 1:22.216

9 R Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:22.878

10 R Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:33.956

11 J Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:23.030

12 A Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda 1:23.037

13 H Kovalainen (Fin) Renault 1:23.099

14 G Fisichella (It) Renault 1:23.179

15 J Button (GB) Honda 1:23.517

16 T Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda 1:23.548

17 M Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 1:23.564

18 D Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault 1:23.618

19 S Speed (USA) Toro Rosso Ferrari 1:23.854

20 A Sutil (Ger) Spyker-Ferrari 1:23.954

21 V Liuzzi (It) Toro Rosso Ferrari 1:24.154

22 C Albers (Ned) Spyker-Ferrari 1:24.172

BBC Sport

Britain's Lewis Hamilton set the stage for a dream victory in Sunday's British Grand Prix by taking pole position with the very last lap of qualifying.

The 22-year-old star produced a superb lap of one minute 19.997 seconds to delight the home crowd and edge out Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by 0.102secs.

Hamilton's team-mate Fernando Alonso, who was fastest in the first two parts of qualifying, is third on the grid.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa is fourth, but less than 0.3secs behind Hamilton.

The McLaren and Ferrari drivers appear closely matched and the race promises to be closely-fought and tense.

But Hamilton is in the perfect position to win his first home Grand Prix, take his third victory in four races and extend his already substantial 14-point lead in the world championship.

Hamilton was thrilled to be starting his home race from the front.

"It was an extremely tense qualifying session," he said. "Ferrari were extremely quick, and so was Fernando.

"It was all down to the final lap. I thought, coming up to the first corner, 'try to do it flat'. I didn't, but I nearly did.

"I gained a couple of tenths and I was able to maintain that through the first sector. It was very tense, but I was able to pull it together."

Hamilton was quick to pay tribute to his legion of fans and said he had got a "big buzz" and "a lot of energy" from their support.

"You definitely get a confidence boost," he said.

"Usually there are pockets, but here it's the whole grandstand. I can't believe how many people are here today and it's been fantastic."

Raikkonen, who has looked very quick throughout the weekend, said he had lost pole with a mistake at the final corner, where he ran wide and put two wheels on the grass.

"I lost all the traction, the sand was flying everywhere, it's a bit disappointing," said the Finn, who won the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours last weekend.

"But hopefully we can get a good start and it is a long race, so we'll see what we can do."

Alonso said he was confident of competing for victory after taking third on the grid.

"I am quite happy with the car," said the world champion.

"Obviously we would want to be on pole position but third is the best we could today and hopefully tomorrow it will pay off and we can overtake people in the race.

"On Friday we tried to work a little bit with the set-up in terms of race pace to understand how the tyres perform in the long runs.

"I was not too happy with the car and our pace did not look too good, especially in the long runs.

"But overnight we did some changes and I found a completely different car. There's no reason why we cannot be competitive."

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica took fifth place, ahead of the surprising Ralf Schumacher in sixth.

The German has struggled this season with his Toyota but has looked quick all weekend at Silverstone.

Rookie Heikki Kovalainen was the faster of the two Renaults in seventh place, just ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella.

Kubica's team-mate Nick Heidfeld and the second Toyota of Jarno Trulli completed the top 10.

Neither Red Bull made it past the second session, with Mark Webber and David Coulthard taking 11th and 12th places.

It has been a bad weekend for Honda. After being caught up in the F1 spy row, it got worse in qualifying when Jenson Button's factory car, and both the Super Aguris from their B team, were eliminated after the first session.

Button's team-mate Rubens Barrichello scraped through into the second session but could manage only 14th place.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 L Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 1min 19.997secs
2 K Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:20.099
3 F Alonso (Spn) McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.147
4 F Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1:20.265
5 R Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:20.401
6 R Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:20.516
7 H Kovalainen (Fin) Renault 1:20.721
8 G Fisichella (It) Renault 1:20.775
9 N Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:20.894
10 J Trulli (It) Toyota 1:21.240
11 M Webber (Aut) Red Bull-Renault 1:20.235
12 D Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault 1:20.329
13 A Wurz (Aut) Williams-Toyota 1:20.350
14 R Barrichello (Brz) Honda 1:20.364
15 S Speed (US) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:20.515
16 V Liuzzi (It) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:20.823
17 N Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 1:21.219
18 J Button (GB) Honda 1:21.335
19 A Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda 1:21.448
20 A Sutil (Ger) Spyker-Ferrari 1:22.019
21 T Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda 1:22.045
22 C Albers (Ned) Spyker-Ferrari 1:22.589

BBC Sports

Pity the dream victory for McLaren wasnt realized at Silverstone, kudos to Kimi for upping the ante when it mattered, would have been another ferrari one-two had Massa started from P4. The season is getting more interesting, any predictions for Germany?

got a feeling that ferrari will take the championship this season inspite of being 18pts adrift off Mclaren . . . Kimi's sort'a revitalised his game and seemed to have struck a perfect chemistry with Massa and this will be very vital to the ferrari success.

I sense a bit of bad blood in the Mclaren camp and this would be a major influence in the next 3 races.
Mclaren will have to be consistent with their strategy too.

F1's spying row - the twists 'n turns

McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan was found to have documents belonging to team Ferrari in his house. now Ferrari ahs taken the case to court. He has since been suspended by the team.

Ferrari's head of performance Nigel Stepney, who has been sacked by the Italian team is the man suspected of leaking the teams secrets to McLaren.

and thats not all . . . Honda boss Nick Fry had also been having meetings with Stepney and is also under investigation.

another twist, However, it emerged during the FIA (governing body for F1) hearing that McLaren managing director Jonathan Neale was aware Coughlan had the documents. It is not known yet whether Neale knew before or after Ferrari started their legal case.

yet more controversy . . . Reports in British and Italian newspapers have suggested that a white powder was found in the petrol tanks of the Ferrari cars prior to the Monaco Grand Prix and The Sunday Times also reported that Italian police searched Stepney's house and left with a small container. .

whats going on in F1

this might be the reason McLaren was getting the better of ferrari earlier on in the season.

Quite possibly . . . the FIA are g'onna run checks on Hamilton and Alonso too !

this doesn't sound good for Hamilton and the McLaren team as a whole cos they might end up deducting points, don't know how the rules of the FIA works though.

docking points, fines and outright bans!

Spa day one - Hamilton sets the pace in Belgium
Lewis Hamilton was the quickest man on track on Tuesday, as this week’s three-day test got underway at the newly-revamped Spa-Francochamps circuit in Belgium. Hamilton clocked a best lap of 1m 46.613s to put McLaren top of the timesheets. The British driver was just over four-tenths of a second quicker than BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica.

Hamilton concentrated on conducting aero tests for the forthcoming Belgian Grand Prix, which will take place at the Spa circuit in September. He also carried out several long runs and a few practice starts. Team mate Fernando Alonso will take over driving duties on Wednesday, although changeable weather conditions are expected and may limit the Spaniard’s running.

Kubica, meanwhile, kicked off BMW Sauber’s intensive test programme. The Polish driver focused on set-up work and tried out a variety of different aerodynamic settings, while also evaluating new mechanical components. He will continue to test for the remaining two days of the session. Over four-tenths down on Kubica's time was Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who completed 64 laps, as he focused on development work in the F2007.

Fourth-quickest driver was Ralf Schumacher for Toyota. After their disappointing showing at last weekend’s race at Silverstone, the Japanese team enjoyed a productive day evaluating tyres for the Belgian event. Schumacher covered 70 laps and will be back in car on Wednesday.

“It is good to have the chance to test here before the race because it enables us to have a preview of the new track layout,” explained Gerd Pfeiffer, Toyota’s test team manager. “There have been changes made around the start-finish area of the lap and there is also a new tarmac around that area. This gives everyone a useful head start for the Belgian Grand Prix. We are also preparing for the coming races and we put some work on dampers and other systems today. We completed our programme without major issues so this has been a positive day.”

Renault tester Nelson Piquet Jr was fifth quickest after completing 52 laps in the R27. Although Piquet’s programme was slightly delayed by an electronic glitch in the late morning, the French team were pleased with progress.

“We managed to get the best out of the afternoon and the results are very interesting,” explained Christian Silk, the squad’s chief test engineer. “We're concentrating on preparing for the Belgian Grand Prix, but not only that as we're also trying to progress in our overall development programme - we're working flat out. Nelson said he was pretty happy with the car's overall balance even if we still have a little work to do in this area.”

Sixth fastest was David Coulthard, who focused on aero work in the Red Bull. Just over four-hundredths adrift of the Scot was Super Aguri tester James Rossiter, who finished the session seventh quickest. Rossiter spent the morning running through an electronic systems control test before completing a general set-up programme during the afternoon. Toro Rosso driver, Vitantonio Liuzzi, meanwhile, took up eighth slot, after a busy day evaluating tyres, set-up and downforce levels. Three-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais will take over from the Italian on Wednesday.

Williams driver Nico Rosberg finished ninth after covering 60 laps in the FW29. Although a problem in the afternoon slowed his progress, Rosberg did manage to complete a race simulation and several set-up runs over the day. Just two-tenths down on the young German was the Honda tester Christian Klien, who concentrated on aero work and start simulations in the RA107.

Completing the line-up was Spyker test driver Giedo van der Garde in 11th. Set-up work and aero development dominated the programme for the Dutch team and van der Garde covered over 350 kilometres.

the FIA has finally officially decided to investigate team McClaren as regards the spying scandal that has rocked f1 lately . . . if McClaren are found guilty of any wrong doing then likely penalties include points deduction, long-term bans and hefty fines.
points deductions will affect the team in both the constructors and driver standings.

Summary of Standings after Silverstone

DRIVER STANDINGS
01 Lewis Hamilton 70
02 Fernando Alonso 58
03 Kimi Räikkönen 52
04 Felipe Massa 51
05 Nick Heidfeld 33


CONSTRUCTOR STANDINGS
01 McLaren-Mercedes 128
02 Ferrari 103
03 BMW 56
04 Renault 31
05 Williams-Toyota 13

checkout http://www.formula1.com/for more

ABOUT F1

Driver fitness

Formula One drivers are some of the most highly conditioned athletes on earth, their bodies specifically adapted to the very exacting requirements of top-flight single-seater motor racing.

All drivers who enter Formula One need to undergo a period of conditioning to the physical demands of the sport: no other race series on earth requires so much of its drivers in terms of stamina and endurance. The vast loadings that Formula One cars are capable of creating, anything up to a sustained 3.5 g of cornering force, for example, means drivers have to be enormously strongg to be able to last for full race distances. The extreme heat found in a Formula One cockpit, especially at the hotter rounds of the championship, also puts vast strain on the body: drivers can sweat off anything up to 3kg of their body weight during the course of a race.

Physical endurance is created through intensive cardio-vascular training: usually running or swimming, although some drivers prefer cycling or even roller-blading! But the unusual loadings experienced by neck and chest muscles cannot be easily replicated by conventional gym equipment, so many drivers use specially designed 'rigs' that enable them to specifically develop the muscles they will need to withstand cornering forces. Strong neck muscles are especially important, as they must support the weight of both the driver's head and his helmet under these intense loadings. Powerful arm muscles are also required to enable the car to be controlled during longer races.

In terms of nutrition, most Formula One drivers control their diets in much the same way as track and field athletes, carefully regulating the amount of carbohydrate and protein that they absorb. During the race weekends proper most drivers will be seen eating pasta or other carbohydrate-rich foods to provide energy and to give the all-important stamina for the race itself. It is also vitally important that drivers take in large amounts of water before the race, even if they do not feel thirsty. Failure to do so could bring on dehydration through sweating - not surprising given that the physical endurance required to drive a Formula One race is not dissimilar to that required to run a marathon.

ABOUT F1

Drivers' clothing

Formula One helmets are designed around the clear need to protect drivers' heads from the risk of major impacts. But the rest of his clothing has an equally serious purpose: offering the best possible defence against the risks of fire.

Fortunately fire is now extremely rare in Formula One racing, although well into the 1970s drivers were being routinely injured or even killed by terrible blazes caused by fuel igniting after accidents. Modern overalls, gloves and boots are made from special fire-proof materials designed to ensure that, even if a driver is trapped inside a burning car, he will remain protected until the marshals have extinguished the blaze.

Today’s overalls feature multi-layer construction from a special form of Aramid plastic fabric, which is tested with a white hot propane flame. The overalls must also be made as light as possible and - due to the physical stresses of driving a Formula One car - they also have to 'breath', allowing the kilograms of sweat produced by a driver during a race to escape. The patches carrying corporate and sponsors' logos are made from the same material, as is the thread used to sew the overalls together.

Overalls also feature two large 'handles' on the drivers’ shoulders. These serve a vital safety purpose as the regulations require cars to be designed so that a driver can be removed from the car strapped into his seat (to minimise the risk of complicating injuries). The seat is therefore secured by just two bolts, designed to be released with a standard tool carried by all rescue crews. The shoulder straps are strong enough to allow the driver and seat to be pulled from the car together, and must therefore be capable of supporting the combined weight.

The fireproof gloves are made as thin as possible, to ensure that the driver has the greatest possible amount of 'feel' to the steering wheel. Similarly the soles of the driver's racing boots are far thinner than those of ordinary shoes to allow the most accurate contact with the car's pedals. Underneath his overalls and his helmet the driver wears a further layer of flameproof underwear.

The effectiveness of all these precautions was amply demonstrated in 1994 when Jos Verstappen and the Benetton pit crew survived a fierce fire caused by a fuel leak with no serious injuries.

Lewis Hamilton's bid to win the Formula One championship could be under threat after his McLaren team were charged with breaking the sport's rules.
McLaren will appear in front of the FIA on 26 July amid claims that their chief designer illegally received information from rivals Ferrari.

The sanctions open to the FIA range from fines to disqualification.

McLaren have expressed their "extreme disappointment" at being charged and deny all the allegations.

British rookie Hamilton leads team-mate Fernando Alonso by 12 points in the drivers' standings, while McLaren have a 25-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors' race.

McLaren's chief designer Mike Coughlan was suspended last week following allegations that he received technical information from sacked Ferrari chief engineer Nigel Stepney back in April.

A 780-page dossier of Ferrari design information was found at Coughlan's house and he has said he will provide a sworn declaration as to how he obtained the documents.

BBC Radio Five Live F1 summariser Maurice Hamilton said: "If the FIA are going to deduct points from McLaren then the driver will automatically lose his as well I'm afraid.

"It is down to Mike Coughlan. It boils down to whether he says to the FIA: 'This was my idea, I was looking for employment elsewhere and I was going to use this detail for the company I was going to go to and not McLaren'."

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis has repeatedly insisted that his team are innocent.

And a team statement said: "McLaren are extremely disappointed to note that they have been asked by the FIA to answer a charge of being in possession of certain documents and confidential information belonging to Ferrari.

"Whilst McLaren wish to continue their full co-operation with any investigation into this matter, they do wish to make it very clear that the documents and confidential information were only in the possession of one currently suspended employee on an unauthorised basis and no element of it has been used in relation to McLaren's Formula One cars."

BBC Sport