Ralf rues a weekend to forget

In contrast, Juan Pablo Montoya exceeded his own expectations to finish fourth after qualifying only eighth.

Schumacher Jr said the British Grand Prix was one to forget about after qualifying 10th, then suffering his sixth retirement in 11races. The German's hopes of another podium finish went up in smoke after 36 laps.

"We are still to figure out what was the problem. It was either the gearbox or the engine," he said. "I just decided to stop because there was a strange noise coming from the car.

"We had the right strategy and we could have been on the podium This is a weekend to forget in terms of results, but we should also learn from this to try and improve our chances next year."

After his disappointing qualifying performance, due both to the car and the uncompetitive Michelin tyres, double race-winner Ralf said Williams must be more consistently competitive from race to race. But it was his first finish outside the top four since winning for the second time in Canada four races ago.

Montoya was pleased with his fourth place having started eighth with his sights on finishing sixth.

"I think I could have been third but our strategy didn't pay off," he said. "It was a pretty good race for me.

"After the warm-up I was aiming for a point, so I'm happy to have come away with three."

Technical director Patrick Head said Montoya had exceeded expectations.

"From eighth to finish fourth is about as good as we could have expected today," he said. "Our race was a lot better than our practice, which was pretty poor, but we have got to go away and work out why that was. We were in a weak position relative to McLaren and Ferrari here."