Coulthard baffled by poor result

David Coulthard says he does not know where his French Grand Prix went wrong, after feeling that his race strategy should have helped him move up the order

The Red Bull Racing driver started 16th after suffering a gearbox problem in qualifying, but made little progress in the race to finish 13th - one place behind teammate Mark Webber.

"The race was going quite well at the beginning and normally, with my longer strategy, I should have been able to jump some people," said Coulthard.

"I'm not sure if my in laps weren't quick enough, or the pitstops weren't quick enough, but with both stops I didn't gain any advantage.

"Towards the end of the race we turned the engine down, as we weren't racing for points in the last few laps. Looking towards Silverstone next weekend, we'll see what comes out of our de-brief now, to see what we can do before then. "

Webber had an equally frustrating afternoon, despite a close shave on the first lap, when he just escaped losing his front wing in the chaos at the Adelaide hairpin.

"I had a pretty good start and was fighting with Rubens (Barrichello) through Turns Two and Three. I got to Turn Five and had to go between the cars of Ralf (Schumacher) and Rubens and nearly lost my front wing, but we got through it.

"I was held up by Ralf in the first stint, who in turn had Barrichello in front of him. Then, on the first lap of my second stint, I had to deal with Ralf while on new tyres, so it was a frustrating race. We tried to go shorter in the second stint to jump Rubens, but it didn't work out."