De la Rosa slams Salo

Salo, who managed to keep the Spaniard behind him for the entire afternoon, attracted a 25s addition to his race time for what the stewards adjudged to be heavy-handedness leaving the pits, dropping him two places to 15th in the final classification.

De le Rosa said: "My opinion is that he had enough room on the right not to squeeze me into the pit wall and I didn't exactly see it as a very clean manoeuvre. Especially because it's so wide on the pit exit here. There was no reason to push me into the wall and it was very close. I nearly hit the wall and I nearly hit Mika. I wouldn't say I was side-by-side but I had one quarter of the car there.

"I didn't just have to back out of it, I had to brake so hard that I locked the front wheel!"

On the subject of being bottled up behind the Toyota for the whole race, he added: " I don't know if it's a track-related issue or what, but it is a clear example of how boring F1 can be if we don't do something. I'd say I was a full second quicker than Salo and still couldn't overtake."