De la Rosa's home race to forget

The Jaguar driver was running last behind team-mate Eddie Irvine as he lost the rear end going into La Caixa.

"What a disappointing way to exit from your home race!" he said. "As I braked, the back end of the car snapped and before I could do anything about it, the car was stuck in the gravel. I'm not sure whether it was the car or me. Either way, this Spanish GP is one that I'll want to forget about."

Irvine lasted until lap 42 when a broken differential forced him into retirement. "The car is very difficult to drive and we must keep pushing forward on our development until we have a solution," said the Ulsterman. "As things stand, the Jaguar R3 is a very unforgiving car and this makes carrying speed into corners very hard.

"At a circuit like this, you cannot afford to come under-equipped and our aero package isn't capable of taking us further right now."

The team is relying on the growing aerodynamics department and a new windtunnel to improve the R3's performance.