"When he had finished, I turned to Martin Whitmarsh, asking what we should do with this particular part of the conversation. Martin said we should find Max (Mosley, FIA president). After Martin and Fernando left, that is exactly what he did. I recounted the entire conversation to Max. I was upset and angry, but mainly upset. Max calmed me down.

"He said that I should do nothing. I started to calm down. Then, prior to the race, Fernando's manager came and said that he had lost his temper and completely retracted everything he said. When I phoned Max, Max was understanding and said things to me that are irrelevant here, though I would be more than comfortable sharing them.

"He was completely understanding and said that, on the basis of what I told him, if he felt there was any real validity in what Fernando had said, he would contact me prior to taking any action. I, however, on the basis that this was an engineering matter, I asked Martin whether he thought something was amiss in that area. He told me, 'We have been too thorough in talking to the engineers; he cannot have been telling the truth.' We subsequently had a reasonable Grand Prix.

"Fernando came to me. He had come in third. He apologized for the outburst and I put it down to the heat of the moment, in which he was angry. That is how I took it. Other than following up with Martin, the matter ended there, until 26 days later, when the drivers received a letter.

"What took place between those times, I do not know. I do not know what circumstances brought that into the public domain," Dennis concluded, hinting that indeed it was Alonso who by his own will turned in the evidence, even before the FIA letter demanding the drivers' collaboration had been sent out.