Heidfeld laments missed chance

Heidfeld, whose BMW Sauber team had looked strong all weekend, was sent into a serious of barrel rolls after being hit at the second corner by the Honda of Jenson Button.

Button had been pushed against Heidfeld by McLaren rival Juan Pablo Montoya, who had also hit teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

Heidfeld escaped unscathed from the accident, but his car was destroyed.

"I escaped unhurt from the accident. I don't know exactly what happened," said Heidfeld. "It looks as if there was another accident before this. I had a very good start, and had already made up three positions so was almost next to Jacques.

"Then all of a sudden I was airborne. It is such a shame as we have been really strong here."

After the promising performance in qualifying, BMW left Indianapolis with nothing to show for, after Jacques Villeneuve retired on lap 24 with an engine failure.

"The car was feeling good and we had quite a lot of grip," said Villeneuve. "We were running strong and were quite a bit faster than the three cars ahead of us, so I was just waiting for the pit stops to see what happened.

"The engine just gave up, sad because it was the first race on this engine so something must have gone wrong. It was very disappointing as we could have been in the points today."