Heidfeld Sorry to Miss Out on Points

Nick Heidfeld was disappointed after missing out on a likely point-scoring finish at the United States Grand Prix.

Jordan driver Heidfeld was running strongly in the points until he suffered a mechanical problem which forced him out of the race, in which only eight drivers finished.

"I'm not 100% sure but I think my problem was the engine," said Heidfeld, who retired on lap 44.

"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 but we have demonstrated once again that we are capable of a strong points-scoring performance so I'm optimistic for the next races."

Heidfeld's teammate Giorgio Pantano also failed to finish the race after being involved in an accident at the first corner.

"What can I say? I got a really good start but then at the first corner I was involved with the incident with Klien and da Matta and I had to stop because the front left suspension was totally broken," Pantano said.

"When you see how few cars finished, it really was possible for us to score a few points today. That's it."