Irvine Unhappy with Ralf's Driving

Briton Eddie Irvine has criticised Williams driver Ralf Schumacher after today's United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis circuit.

The German driver crashed with Williams teammate Juan Pablo Montoya at the start of the race and was forced to come into the pits to replace his rear wing, losing a lap. Schumacher then tried to recover and unlap himself while Irvine was fighting for position with Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.

"The pace of the Jaguar was very good and I suffered no issues over the 73-laps apart from Ralf Schumacher," said the Jaguar driver after the race, where he finished in 10th place. "For someone who is a lap down on the field, I cannot understand his actions today.

"He knew that Heidfeld and I were dicing for position over the last fifteen laps or so and yet for some bizarre reason, there's Ralf trying to get between us. Not the most clever race craft but that's Ralf."

Irvine, who had finished in third place at the Italian Grand Prix two weeks ago, was unable to shine in today's race, and the Irishman blamed his poor qualifying performance.

"All the damage was done on Saturday. It made us compromise strategy, the start to the race and pretty much everything," said Irvine, who started the race from 13th place. "We really paid the penalty today for not qualifying where we were capable of and had we done so, I'm sure we'd have beaten the Renaults today."