Audi call for fewer mistakes

Audis had started from the first five positions on the grid, yet only Mattias Ekstrom finished in the top five, while Mika Hakkinen won the race for Mercedes.

"There have been too many errors in this race," said Audi's head of motorsport Wolfgang Ullrich. "It was very difficult, but this is racing.

"I hope that is all of our mistakes for the season out of the way in one race. Considering the starting positions, this result is very disappointing."

Audi had six cars in the top eight, but all apart from Ekstrom hit some kind of trouble during the race. The Swede lost out to Hakkinen because of the timing of the safety car period.

"Mattias drove a flawless race, and it is nice that he is leading the championship," said Ullrich. "But today a lot more would have been possible. We had good speed but that is not enough."

Hans-Jurgen Abt, team director of Audi Sport Abt Sportsline added: "At Zandvoort we need to do a better job than on Sunday.

"We didn't make any mistakes lately, but here we did. That's something we have to admit."