More Frustration for Fisichella

"Honestly we are now investigating to find what happened," the Italian told reporters after returning to the pits. "I completely lost control of the car, there is something wrong but I don't know what happened."

Fisichella has had a run of bad luck since Melbourne, colliding with the Williams of Australian Mark Webber in Malaysia and suffering an engine failure in Bahrain.

Although he had a new and more powerful engine for Sunday's appearance before his home fans, it was clear his car had a handling problem.

"I am really disappointed," Fisichella added. "Another bad weekend, this is the third race without scoring points for the Championship. I am really disappointed, but we have a good package."

Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso, the championship leader after winning in Malaysia and Bahrain, led the race following the retirement of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.

Raikkonen, starting on pole position, led for the first nine laps before slowing with a technical problem.

The Finn angrily threw away his steering wheel when he returned to the McLaren garages and stepped out of the car.