Rahal not blaming Michelin for poor start

Pedro de la Rosa and Eddie Irvine could only manage 13th and 15th places in the opening day of running at the Nurburgring, where the temperature struggled to 15-degrees in the afternoon after hovering around the 10-degree mark in the first session.

"It's a little early to be over-critical of the tyres around here, especially when you consider that the track temperature is much lower than everybody thought it would be," said Rahal. "The car, however, is handling quite well and we now need to work out how best to adapt it to the tyres and conditions we face. A hotter day would not go amiss."

De la Rosa said: "We're slower than we expected and we know why. We are struggling for grip and, after having tried both Michelin compounds, we're no nearer to finding a solution at this stage. The team will obviously work hard on the chassis to try and adapt it to the tyres we have, but there really isn't a great deal of grip out there."

Irvine, who lost the entire first session due to an electrical problem and spun twice in the second period, said: "The rear end of the car is quite prone to stepping out and traction is being made very hard to find by the lack of grip we are suffering from."

The Ulsterman says he is suffering no after effects from the recent neck injury he suffered from at Silverstone: "I'm also pleased to say that everything is back to normal working order," he said.