Defective Rod Costs Arrows Dear

Both Brazilian Enrique Bernoldi and Arrows teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen continued with their disappointing season so far, retiring from the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos on Sunday.

Bernoldi, who is yet to finish a race this year after retiring in Malaysia and being disqualified in Australia, had a difficult start of his day, crashing heavily during the morning warm-up, causing severe damage to his A23 chassis.

Bernoldi was forced to use the spare car, and both him and teammate Frentzen had to leave the race after the team discovered a broken rear track rod on both their cars and decided to retire both drivers as a precaution.

"We have had no problems with that part until today so we are obviously very disappointed," said technical director Mike Coughlan. "It looks like we had the problem on Enrique's car this morning but because of the damage we did not realise.

"Both drivers were running strongly in the race so we look forward to Imola where temperatures should suit us more."