Coulthard blames understeer for struggle

Coulthard, who scored his Red Bull Racing team's first Formula One podium at the Monaco Grand Prix a fortnight ago, was unable to repeat the feat, and was never in contention for the points.

The Scot wound up 12th after struggling with his car's handling for most of the race.

"The car had a lot of understeer during the race," said Coulthard. "I thought I might have done some damage to its underside when I was pushed wide over the kerb at the exit of Stowe on lap one during a battle with Jacques Villeneuve. There was more understeer than there had been during qualifying or the practices and I was surprised by the car's balance.

"We increased the front aero by two percent during the race to reduce the understeer, which is a hell of a lot, and it was a little better by the end. Mechanically we performed well, but aero efficiency wise, which is what you need round a circuit like this, we're not where we need to be and we know we've got work to do.

"The team's knuckling down and getting on with it and I'm looking forward to next week's test."

The race was not any better for teammate Christian Klien, who described his day as disastrous after coming home in 14th.

"The race was a disaster for me, I think," said Klien. "I had to start on scrub tyres, so I lost two positions at the start and it was difficult to warm them on the low grip track. I had a lot of understeer during the race and struggled through the high-speed corners. As a result, I lost time in the first sector.

"The second stint was better; I added some front flap and the pace at that point was actually very good. I made up time on David, but unfortunately not enough to jump Tonio. In the last stint my tyres were badly damaged and for the last ten laps the pace of the car was pretty far away from the top eight."