McLaren boss Ron Dennis has hinted that Lewis Hamilton could be on a different strategy to the two Ferraris after the Englishman was relegated to the second row in qualifying for the Monaco GP.
Having dominated in practice, Hamilton was the favourite to take pole on Saturday but was surprisingly eclipsed by both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen.
However, with what may or may or not be a ruse or a telling hint, Dennis has insisted that McLaren can still win the race, on a circuit on which it is notoriously difficult to overtake, through a superior 'strategy'.
"We go to every race to do our best, and again we are very close here," said Dennis. "Until the strategies unfold, we won't really know whether we are behind or ahead.
"It is very easy to come to Monaco and say, right, we are going to qualify on the front row regardless, but if you go too far then you are going to lose the race because you are going to stop too soon.
"So we'll just have to see how things unfold. It is obviously very close, and we don't have an uncompetitive car, and there are lots of developments going through the system, so we have a long way to go."
In a broader hint that both Hamilton and team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, who will start the race from fourth, are more heavily fuelled than both Raikkonen and Massa, Dennis continued: "Especially in Monaco you can destroy your race with a smaller fuel load and it is easy to make a wrong decision in that respect," he said.
"With a good start, and if we can stay out longer, even from the second row it is possible to win here. We have a good strategy and I expect a very hard fought race in hopefully good weather conditions."
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