McLaren boss Ron Dennis today applauded Formula One ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone for stepping in with a £2.5million lifeline to minnows Minardi.
Dennis hopes Ecclestone's actions will end the war of words with fellow team chief Paul Stoddart over the `Fighting Fund'.
Ecclestone took a shareholding in Stoddart's Minardi team yesterday in a twist bizarre even by Formula One standards having told the Australian just hours earlier that he should not be in the sport.
"It's an interesting twist," said Dennis, who believes Ecclestone taking a stake in a grand prix team for the first time since the late 1980s will not be a conflict of interest.
"It is a very elegant solution to a difficult situation and I am delighted for Paul. Overall it is good for everybody.
"Bernie's actions were very much to try and settle an inflammatory element that occasionally occurs in F1."
Dennis admitted that he regretted becoming embroiled in an unedifying verbal squabble with Stoddart over grand prix finances at a press conference at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal on Friday.
Stoddart, battling to save the sport's smallest outfit, had accused Dennis and Frank Williams of reneging on a commitment to establish a `Fighting Fund' to aid the independent teams.
"I don't think the press conference was a particularly pleasant experience for anybody, it certainly wasn't for me," added Dennis.
"It is not in my character to stay silent when things are being said that I don't necessarily agree or believe to be the case.
"I regret being sucked into it, I should have known better, but that's life, that's the way I am.
"I hope Bernie's actions puts behind us those issues because it is interests of F1 and that's why he did it."
Ecclestone's cash boost should guarantee Minardi's survival until the end of the season and ensure that the grid still has 10 teams.