Fisi and Heidfeld sorry

Heidfeld was the first victim when his engine stopped on lap 45. The German had been running in seventh place and had he sustained his position he would have been promoted to sixth following the disqualification of Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya.

"I'm not 100% sure but I think my problem was the engine," he said. "It may have been something else that caused the engine to stop so I will have to check with the engineers later. The race was going better than expected: I was lucky enough not to be involved with the crash at the beginning and then when I was a lot of laps into the race, the tyres and car improved. I think we had a good chance for results today so it's disappointing not to finish."

Four laps later and it was Fisichella's turn of misfortune when he suffered a puncture while in seventh place having moved up a slot after Heidfeld's retirement. The Italian nursed his car back to the pits for a new tyre but damaged his car in the process.

"After the first-corner accident we used the safety car period to refuel," said Fisichella. "I then did a very long stint but unfortunately I could not pass Heidfeld. Later on I picked up a puncture on lap 48. Having to drive so slowly back to the pits did some damage, so I subsequently had to retire because of an hydraulic leak just when we were set to score a point. Altogether, a very disappointing day."

The team-mate's of both drivers were also saddled with bad luck. Sauber's Felipe Massa and Jordan's Giorgio Pantano both got caught up in the first lap accident started by Toyota's Cristiano da Matta.