McLaren deny Boullier received bollocking from Dennis

A team spokesman has dismissed reports that McLaren F1 boss Eric Boullier was rebuked by Ron Dennis after the recent Brazilian grand prix.

It was at Interlagos that Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button frolicked jokingly on the podium, before Alonso's trackside 'sunbathing' following a series of car breakdowns triggered a hash-tag storm.

"I think it [mass photoshopping] was something positive," Alonso told the Spanish newspaper Marca in Abu Dhabi.

"The power of social networks is now very strong and if you use it and take it with humour, that's good for everyone."

Honda's Yasuhisa Arai agreed, forgiving McLaren's drivers for their frustration and saying their humour helped the whole team. But according to El Mundo, McLaren supremo Ron Dennis had a different view entirely.

Absent in Brazil, Dennis reportedly picked up the phone when he saw Alonso and Button frolicking on the podium and told team boss Boullier: "Can you not control your drivers? What are they doing? Control them!"

When asked by Marca what he thought of the drivers' antics in Brazil, Boullier answered: "I'd prefer not to say truthfully."

But a McLaren spokesman denied Dennis' phone call happened at all.

"This report is total codswallop," he told us, "which means, to make it crystal clear for the El Mundo journalist who wrote it, it's completely untrue."

Neither Alonso nor Button have been near the podium this year, with the Briton's best place being sixth at the United States Grand Prix, while the Spaniard's best result thus far was fifth in Hungary.

Apart from his rookie season in 2001, Alonso has been on the podium at least once in every season since except this year.