Monteiro's Run Comes to an End

Monteiro had finished every race so far this season, but a mechanical problem in his Jordan forced him into retirement, ending his run of 16 consecutive finishes.

"My consecutive race finishes had to stop at some point," said Monteiro. "It is a pity as everyone was hoping we could make it to the end of the season. I had a mechanical problem but this is racing. It happened to me in the past and it will happen again in the future, but it is still frustrating.

"Until then, it was an amazing weekend, I started 11th on the grid due to Villeneuve's penalty. I was going very well during the race but you cannot control mechanical issues. There is nothing we can do about it. Now we are thinking about the next two races already."

Teammate Narain Karthikeyan made it to the end of the race, but the Indian was the last classified driver, three laps down.

"I made a decent start and kept up with Sato and Trulli for quite a while," said Karthikeyan. "Then I had to make my first pit stop and when I went out, I had to give way to the leaders and therefore lost two to three seconds a lap for two consecutive laps. This cost me a lot of track position.

"However, I was then catching Albers but, coming to turn 1, I had a flat spot and had to make an extra pit stop which again cost me some time. The car after that was very good but it was too late. I am nevertheless happy to finish another race this season."