Irvine and Herbert wait for cure

Both R1-Cosworths made it to the finish again, but this was a qualified success: the Jaguars had to stop to have their hydraulic fluid topped up during the race.

Technical director Gary Anderson was unhappy about the eventful race, pointing to the cars' tendancy for tardy getaways as that which did the most harm.

"We've got to get out starts sorted," he said. "There's something wrong there. We've practised them and got some good ones, but whenever it counts it doesn't work. So I don't know what it is. We've got a lot of good data from here, so we'll have a look at it.

The R1 was less than perfect in race trim and Anderson is keen to sort out this problem which is a feature of the new car as distinct from its predecessor the Stewart SF3 - a car noted for its stability.

"We've still got this sensitivity issue where the car seems too nervous on corner entries. We've got to look at it really. It's not necessarily an aero issue, but I'm sure that's part of it. So we need to do a lot more wind tunnel work

Johnny Herbert finished ahead of Irvine for the first time, but this victory was a Phyrric one.

"Both of us got bad starts, and we need to fix that first," said Johnny. "Here you just get stuck behind people. I had a couple of chances to be on my own and go much quicker, and then got stuck behind them again.

"After my lost stop, when the engine died, we lost time. I would probably have got in front of Alesi and Diniz, but because of that I didn't. When I went out I was on my own, but I caught Pedro and got stuck behind him again, which just makes the race a little bit frustrating."

Eddie Irvine also lost places off the start line, and then had to suffer a 25 seconds stationary whilst the team attempted to restart his car.

"I had another clutch problem at the start, similar to the one we had in Imola, which is something we have to sort out," said Eddie.

"As for the second pit stop, I engaged neutral and the engine just cut out. It could be that it is related to the new pit limiter system, but we will have to investigate it. It's difficult to understand why the car is so good in qualifying but a handful in the race. I have a few ideas, but until we get some quality testing done we won't really identify the problem areas and find a fix."

Gary Anderson put his finger on the problem, succinctly. "We need a lot of points!" he said simply.