Oct.25 (GMM) Bernie Ecclestone says Ron Dennis is to blame for handing the 2007 drivers' championship to Kimi Raikkonen in last Sunday's Brazilian finale.



The F1 chief executive, who made no secret of his desire that Lewis Hamilton should beat the Ferrari driver or Fernando Alonso to the title, said McLaren committed a "silly" strategy error that cost rookie Hamilton the sport's biggest prize.



"Ron gave Raikkonen the championship," Ecclestone said, referring to the decision to change Hamilton's strategy to a three-stopper after his gearbox went into neutral.



Bernie, 76, told the Mirror newspaper: "He made no time on the road and lost 25 seconds making the stop. If he had only lost 15 seconds he would have been fourth.



"(Now) Raikkonen is champion. I just hopes he starts talking more."



McLaren boss Dennis argued in a team-generated interview this week that switching Hamilton's strategy gained him between 10-15 seconds compared with the two-stoppers.



But triple world champion Niki Lauda agrees with Ecclestone.



"A two-stop strategy could have bought him up to fifth place. We need to look at times. There are 20 seconds missing. If this is the case McLaren screwed up," the Austrian veteran said.