Heidfeld baffled by lack of pace

As Villeneuve raced competitively to score a single point with eighth place in the European Grand Prix, Heidfeld was again left struggling to match the pace of the cars ahead of him and could do no better than 10 th.

The German says he is baffled about the cause of the problem, but wants it fixed in time for next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

"I made a super start and was able to make up four positions in the first corner," explained Heidfeld. "I then tried very hard but I couldn't keep up with the pace of the drivers in front of me.

"I was struggling with the balance of the car, which is a problem I have had since the Imola race and I don't have a solution yet. We have to analyse this as a matter of urgency."

Villeneuve claimed his chances of a better finish were hampered by difficulties extracting speed out of his car on heavy fuel loads - although he did have a cheeky dig at Giancarlo Fisichella for not overtaking him earlier in the race.

The pair clashed after qualifying when Fisichella accused Villeneuve of deliberately blocking his quick lap - and subsequently got the stewards to punish the former World Champion by deleting his best laps.

"Overall a good result for us," explained Villeneuve. "It was very close with Fisichella and was a good battle. With the car he had I thought he would overtake me, but he stayed behind until the second pitstop so that was good.

"Coming out of the pits each time with a high fuel load the car was hard to drive, but once we got the tyres used up the rhythm was good as the older the tyres were the better the car felt."