BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) -- McLaren boss Ron Dennis attacked Ferrari for continuing the dispute over leaked confidential information and accused the Italian team of having an "illegal competitive advantage" at the Australian Grand Prix earlier this season.

"This is a fantastic World Championship and it would be a tragedy if one of the best World Championships in years was derailed by the acts of one Ferrari and one McLaren employee acting for their own purposes wholly unconnected with Ferrari or McLaren," Dennis said in a five-page letter to Luigi Macaluso, head of the Italian automobile association, which represents Ferrari.

"The World Championship should be contested on the track, not in courts or in the press," Dennis said in the letter released Thursday by McLaren in Budapest, site of this weekend's Hungarian GP.

Dennis also said Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen may have won the season-opening Australian GP in March in a car using illegal parts.

Using information supplied by Ferrari mechanic Nigel Stepney, McLaren had reported Ferrari to governing body FIA, which found that one of the two disputed parts -- a floor attachment mechanism -- was illegal, Dennis said.

"As far as we are aware, Ferrari ran their cars with this illegal device at the Australian Grand Prix, which they won," Dennis said. "In the interests of the sport, McLaren chose not to protest the result ... even though it seems clear that Ferrari had an illegal competitive advantage."

On the track, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso lead the driver standings with seven of 17 races left in the season. Hamilton has 70 points and Alonso 68, while Felipe Massa has 59 and Kimi Raikkonen 52 for Ferrari.

McLaren also leads the constructor standings with 138 points to 111 for Ferrari.

The main dispute ignited when a 780-page technical dossier on Ferrari cars was found at the home of McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan, who has since been suspended. Stepney, the Ferrari mechanic who allegedly supplied the documents in April, was fired.

Dennis said Stepney's actions as a "whistle-blower" at the Australian GP and his later contact with Coughlan were two separate issues.

After a hearing in Paris last Thursday, FIA's World Motor Sport Council ruled that McLaren did possess secret Ferrari documents but did not punish the team because there was insufficient evidence the material was misused. However, it warned the team that it could be kicked out of the 2007 and 2008 championship.

FIA president Max Mosley said Tuesday he was sending the case to the body's court of appeal to allow Ferrari to present its case and to ensure "public confidence" in the result.

Previously, FIA had said no appeal was permitted.

The date of the appeal has not been decided. After Hungary, the next race is the Turkish GP on Aug. 26.

Macaluso complained that Ferrari was only an observer at last week's hearing and did not have a chance to offer its side of the story.

Dennis disagreed and said Ferrari's lawyers and team head Jean Todt gave evidence, including lengthy closing comments.

"I therefore simply do not understand what basis there is for Ferrari's claim that it was denied an opportunity to put its case in both writing and orally," Dennis said

Dennis also noted that Coughlan copied the main dossier to two compact disks before "shredding the originals using a home shredder and burning them in his back garden."

Two employees at McLaren, engineer Rob Taylor and Coughlan's boss Jonathan Neale, had brief looks at the material but neither was "aware that the single pages they were shown were Ferrari confidential information and still less that they were part of a dossier of several hundred pages," Dennis said.

Stepney is also facing criminal charges filed by Ferrari against him in a court in Modena, Italy for attempted sabotage before the Monaco Grand Prix.

A mysterious white powder was found on the gas tanks of Ferrari's cars on May 21, six days before the Monaco race, and traces of the powder have reportedly been found in a pair of Stepney's trousers.

Stepney denies all charges.

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Associated Press Writer Pablo Gorondi in Budapest contributed to this report.