Montoya frustrated by lack of grip

The Colombian effectively led the race until the second round of pit stops at Magny-Cours, although he had to rely on the stewards giving Ferrari's Michael Schumacher a drive-thru penalty to stay in front. His final stint was disastrous, however, and saw him slip to fourth, 40secs behind race winner Schumacher.

"Again I could not take advantage of my pole position," he said. "In the race I was struggling a lot with the balance of my car, which was very difficult to drive. Our tyre choice was good in yesterday's hotter conditions but it didn't pay off today in cooler conditions. As the race went on, we were losing grip more and more."

Williams' chief operations director Sam Michael was similarly downbeat about the performance.

"This was obviously a disappointing race day for us as it has shown we were simply not competitive enough," he admitted. "Our tyre choice looks like a mistake and our performance in race trim is not enough."