Coulthard rues reliability problems

Coulthard, who had already suffered mechanical problems on Saturday, left the race on lap 30 after losing throttle control and power steering.

It was the Scot's seventh retirement of the season and the 12th for Red Bull.

"I had to stop due to a hydraulic related issue, I lost throttle control and power steering," said Coulthard. "On Friday the car failed in Eau Rouge, which is never good, but fortunately this time it happened on a straight, so I had more room to manoeuvre my car out of the way of the others.

"There's no way you can get it back to the pits in that situation, as you have no throttle control. The car was very heavy at the beginning of the race, so I was quite slow, but as the fuel came off, I found more performance.

"The car wasn't too good when exiting the corners today, or braking into the chicane and the hairpin; in fact there were a lot of problems which aren't usual for this car, so we need to try and understand what went wrong today.

Teammate Mark Webber enjoyed a better day, the Australian putting on a strong showing to finish in seventh place.

"It's very good for us to get points today, it's not always easy for us these days and it was great to beat the other Renault team fair and square," said Webber. "David did great job acting as a buffer in front of Kubica, which assisted me. It was an enjoyable race this afternoon."