Pit stop mix-up costs McNish a point

McNish, who had qualified 19th in the spare car, made a meteoric start and was 11th at the end of the opening lap. By two-thirds distance he had moved his Toyota into a points-scoring position.

"I think I had Felipe Massa covered," said McNish. "I knew where I was quicker and I had all angles weighed up. So long as I got out of the pits ahead of him after my second pit stop, sixth was on the cards.

"I don't fully know what happened yet but there was some confusion over the stops and I came into the pits just after my team-mate had left and my tyres weren't ready. The team put the fuel in and to save time they put the same set of tyres back on and I had to go to the end of the race on that set," he added.

His team-mate Mika Salo, meanwhile, scrapped with Button's Renault early in the race before having to pit with an electrical problem.

"It was a big shame for him," said chief designer Gustav Brunner. "Basically the electrical problem was causing the engine to lose power and it was behaving more like a Formula 3 car."