Barrichello rues seatbelts issues

And the Brazilian, who recorded his fourth second place at the Principality on his 17th appearance, said afterwards that he was proud of his achievement considering the problems he faced as a consequence of the seatbelt issue.

"In the second stint my seatbelts got looser and looser and I could hear them going clank, clank," said Barrichello.

"So I had to start driving differently and switch the brakes to the front, because when you brake you are just moving around in the car and when you press the pedal you lock the rear wheels more. So I had a great time, really.

"It wasn't as easy as it looked from the outside, so I am proud of what we achieved today."

Barrichello admitted that the race had realistically been lost on Saturday when Jenson Button took pole position on the street track - notorious for its lack of overtaking.

"If you look back it defined the race yesterday because it is great momentum to have when you start from the front," he said.

"Once again, just like Barcelona I had a great start and was able to have a run on Kimi [Raikkonen] to take second. And then I ran tremendous pace. It was really, really good behind Jenson.

"But possibly I was just too close because losing that little bit of aero made me slide a little bit more and I grained the rear tyres.

"So from 1m16s, I started to run 1m20s and then Jenson gained 3-4s a lap, and that defined the race pretty much."