BMW to investigate Kubica's problem

Kubica had looked set for a surprise result at Shanghai but his car lost its gears and power steering when he was heading the field shortly after the early leaders had all stopped for tyres.

And, having been beset by hydraulic problems all weekend, BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen said the team will now look hard into why they were hit with such issues.

"It was an extremely hard weekend for our team," said Theissen. "On Friday and on Saturday we had hydraulic problems three times.

"In contrast to European races, here we do not have the opportunity to analyse such a problem and to take the respective measures. Therefore, we knew before the race started there was a risk of a failure.

"Anyway, it is hard for Robert to roll to a stop while leading the race...We will take the defective parts to Munich in our hand luggage in order to start the analysis on Monday morning."

Kubica could not hide his disappointment about his retirement.

"I retired from the race with an hydraulic leak," he said. "That more or less says it all as I found myself with no power steering and no gears. It was looking pretty good up to then.

"We stayed out when it started raining with grooved tyres for three or four laps, which was very difficult, but it paid off. However, in the end it didn't pay off because I couldn't finish the race."

Nick Heidfeld gave the team small consolation with a seventh place finish, but he believes they had fallen short today.

"I am very disappointed as fourth was possible for us today," said the German. "In hindsight it was a mistake to take a second set of wets after 28 laps. At this time my first set was completely finished and I lost about 12 seconds a lap.

"On top of that it looked like we would have more rain. But after 32 laps I had to pit again for dry tyres. The race started well - I managed to gain two positions at the start, and it was almost three.

"On lap four I made a mistake under braking before the hairpin and Vitantonio Liuzzi passed me. Later in the race we met again, but I couldn't overtake him. I was very close in the corners but couldn't catch him on the straights."