Sunday 23 March at 16:22 : Ron Dennis returned to England after last Sunday's Australian grand prix following the sudden death of his older brother Michael, it has emerged in the Sepang paddock.

The McLaren boss had told reporters in Melbourne that he would not be making the subsequent journey to Malaysia because he had to return to Britain to attend to an unfortunate personal matter.

It turns out that it was the funeral of his 66-year-old brother, who had died while Dennis was in Australia for the first race of 2008.

Dennis then decided at the last minute to make the 20-odd hour flight to Malaysia, despite the fact that he would only be present at Sepang for qualifying and Sunday's grand prix.

The move, however, gave the lie to continuing speculation that Dennis' commitment to fronting the Mercedes-powered team is beginning to wane.

"Before I embark on the next chapter of my life, I would like the McLaren Group to be completely stable and to have a complete resolution of all the aspects that have created the instability of the company," he is quoted as saying by the Mail on Sunday.

In the interview, he also commented that he believes Heikki Kovalainen will soon be ready to join teammate Lewis Hamilton as a race winner.

"Heikki is learning from him very fast the level of commitment that is required to be a race winner," he said.