Formula 1: McLaren boss Ron Dennis has again stressed there will be no favouritism when Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso face a win-or-bust clash for the Formula One world title in Brazil.
Faced with suggestions his team are siding with Hamilton given the furore that has surrounded Alonso in recent weeks, Dennis has felt compelled to issue a defiant defence.
"This has been a tremendous season to which the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team and our drivers have, I believe, contributed a great deal," remarked Dennis.
"This contribution has been enhanced by allowing Fernando and Lewis to race each other with complete equality.
"This will, of course, continue in Brazil where the entire team will be doing its absolute best to win the drivers' world title."
Reigning world champion Alonso has not helped himself, of course, in particular when he threatened Dennis with divulging sensitive information in relation to the spy scandal unless he was afforded number one status within the team.
Dennis confirmed at the World Motor Sport Council hearing into the case he and the 26-year-old Spaniard were no longer talking to one another as a result of that bust-up.
Their feud escalated further throughout the course of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, with Alonso clearly intimating the team were favouring Hamilton.
That followed a qualifying session in Shanghai in which Alonso was a distant fourth to Hamilton's pole, suggesting the tyre pressures were to blame.
Alonso is believed to have threw his helmet across the floor of the McLaren garage, and knocked a door off its hinges, such was his anger at what had unfolded.
But following Hamilton's first retirement of the season, the 22-year-old sliding off into the only gravel trap that exists in a Formula One pit lane on severely-worn tyres, the title race is still up in the air.
Hamilton leads Alonso by four points, with Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari still in the hunt as he is a further three points adrift.
Supporting Dennis, Norbert Haug, vice-president of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, said: "There have been a lot of suggestions and rumours about equality in the team this year.
"The current point standings illustrate better than anything else the fact that equal treatment is in place.
"During the 12 years Mercedes-Benz and McLaren have been working together, all drivers in the team had the same possibilities to perform.
"We will not change this principle for the next race, which is the last of the thrilling 2007 season, and we will see both Fernando and Lewis compete for the driver's world championship title."