Barrichello suffers gear trouble

The Brazilian, who was supposed to start second alongside team-mate Michael Schumacher, could not engage first gear as the cars were waved away.

"I tried everything," he said. "We have so many buttons on the steering wheel, but I couldn't get it to work.

"It was a great weekend up to that point and I was feeling ready to win. Now I have to be strong enough in my mind to put this behind me and go on to the next race."

Schumacher went on to dominate the race and scored a comfortable victory. But having suffered a hydraulics failure in the morning, the German admitted that reliability was in the back of his mind.

"Obviously with Rubens' problem, we tried to take care," he said. "We did safe pit stops and did things more carefully."

Schumacher also expressed his sympathy for Barrichello, saying: "He has had really bad luck. Everything that has gone wrong this year has gone wrong for him."