Montoya's car damaged in hit with Ralf

After claiming the front row of the grid in qualifying, the Williams-BMW drivers actually made contact at the first corner of a hectic European Grand Prix opening lap, by the end of which neither could prevent Ferrari from taking the initiative

"I had a good start and passed Juan at the first corner because I had the advantage of new tyres," said Schumacher Jr. Montoya, however, appeared to be squeezed and suffered a bent steering arm in the scramble.

Ultimately, however, the Ferrari race pace was too hot for Williams to handle and after contact with David Coulthard just before their scheduled pit stops, Montoya failed to finish the third successive race he has started from pole position.

Despite starting on different tyres - Montoya used the softer Michelin and Ralf Schumacher the harder tyre - both drivers were in trouble trying to run on a heavier one-stop fuel load than the two-stopping Ferraris. Schumacher Jr was forced to concede the final podium place to Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren.

"We had a poor performance today," admitted chief operations engineer Sam Michael. "We had similar problems to Monaco where we had extreme wear on the rear tyres of both cars. We had to pull Ralf's pit stop forward by a long way but Juan unfortunately didn't make it that far. We have a lot of work to do and it's clear where our problem lies."