Ralf Critical of Coulthard after Incident

Williams' Ralf Schumacher was critical of McLaren driver David Coulthard after the pair were involved in an accident during today's Chinese Grand Prix.

The Scot, battling with Schumacher for fifth place, dived down the inside at the hairpin of the Shanghai circuit, but the move failed as the German driver closed the door. Both cars touched, and an angry Schumacher went into the pits while Coulthard suffered a puncture.

Schumacher claimed he thought his Williams had been damaged, and although his mechanics discovered the car was fine the German decided not to return to the race.

"It's a true pity that my race had an early end," said Schumacher. "My car had a puncture following contact with Coulthard. He tried to overtake me but I think his move was a bit too optimistic. Anyway, I came into the pits to fix the car which we thought had been damaged but after a careful look, the engineers decided that I could continue the race.

"However, too much time had elapsed by then and it was too late to get out on track again, because I would have been two laps down. It's a shame, because my race had been good until then and I had been fighting in the top five positions."

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, meanwhile, recovered well from his poor starting position and finished in a distant fifth place.

"In the first part of the race I was stuck in traffic, but the second part was better," Montoya, who had qualified 10th, said. "I was quite close to Sato but I made a mistake before the pit-stop and it cost me a little but then he made a mistake and I got him back.

"It's good to have achieved fifth position from where we started and I am glad to have collected some good points for the team."