Monteiro frustrated by early exit

The Midland driver was one of several men involved in the first corner crash, when he was hit by a rival.

Monteiro had to retire immediately after his car suffered too much damage.

"This is one of the most frustrating situations for everyone: the mechanics, engineers and myself," said Monteiro. "It's probably the worst thing that can happen, because we worked so hard all weekend, only to be knocked out before the first corner.

"What's even worse is that I think we were on the right strategy for the race, being on the harder tyre, which would have worked well here, given the extremely hot temperatures. It could have been a really good one.

"Unfortunately, I got caught up in a racing incident. Everybody was trying to avoid a car that has spun, and I think one of the cars behind turned into me as it was trying to avoid another car. It happened so quickly; I had no time to react. He hit my wheel and my radiator and that was it."

Dutch teammate Christijan Albers completed a dismal day for the Midland team after crashing out heavily with 12 laps remaining.

"This could have been a very good race for us," said Albers. "We put in a strong qualifying performance yesterday, and our race pace allowed us to fight for positions. I can definitely tell now where we're gaining time on the others and where we're losing time, so we have to work on that.

"But overall, I think it's been very positive, because we're catching up to the cars ahead. It's just a shame that we made a mistake during the second pitstop.

"At the end, though, I made a driver error: just going a bit too wide and touching the grass, which caused me to slam pretty hard into the guardrail. My shoulder is a little sore, but otherwise I'm OK."