Mosley, Dennis talk and shake hands

FIA president Max Mosley and McLaren CEO Ron Dennis have cleared the air after the latter felt offended by comments made by Mosley in the wake of the spy verdict on Thursday.

Dennis had said he was offended by comments by Mosley which questioned his integrity. Mosley had raised doubts on whether Dennis had been telling the FIA the truth.

During the Hungarian grand prix weekend following an argument with Fernando Alonso Dennis had phoned Mosley, telling him that according to the driver, e-mails on the espionage case existed. He had also said this was an empty threat by Alonso which had then been retratcted and no such evidence existed. Mosley took up the issue and wrote to the drivers, asking them to hand any such e-mails, as actually happened. That evidence led to McLaren being fined $100 million and excluded from the constructors' championship.

In a statement after a meeting at Spa on Saturday afternoon, Mosley said: “For the avoidance of doubt, Ron Dennis told me on the Sunday of the Hungarian Grand Prix that, notwithstanding an exchange with Fernando Alonso, there was no information held by anyone within the McLaren team which might cast doubt on the World Motor Sport Council decision of 26th July,” he said.

“He confirmed to me this afternoon that he did indeed say this and I entirely accept that he believed it to be true at that time.”

Dennis said:

“After a frank and open discussion with Max Mosley this afternoon, we reached full agreement on the relevant content and context of the discussions that took place on the Sunday of the Hungarian Grand Prix,” he said.

“Our subsequent recollections of these, which I repeated to the World Motor Sport Council on Thursday, will be contained in the transcript to be made available to the media next week.

“It has been a difficult period in the history of McLaren but we have tried hard to cooperate with the FIA, which has been committed to a transparent and thorough process.”

The two then shook hands outside the McLaren motorhome. McLaren have not said yet whether they will appeal the verdict.