Speed sorry to miss out on point finish

The Toro Rosso driver, starting from 18th position on the grid, benefited from a flying start to gain several positions.

Speed ran in ninth in the latter stages of the race, the American hoping a retirement would move him into the point-scoring places.

However, that never came, and he had to settle for a slot right outside the points.

"I got a good launch off the grid and as everyone bottled up going into Turn 1, I made an aggressive move round the outside and it paid off as I got around David (Coulthard) and we battled hard," Speed said. "Then I think we had a reasonably good pace in the race.

"In terms of the strategy, maybe I should have pitted a bit earlier, but Kimi was out of reach anyway. I enjoyed myself but every time for the last 15 laps I was hoping someone would drop out and that I'd see my pit board go from P9 to P8 to get that point, but it never happened."

Teammate Tonio Liuzzi's race came to an end on the second lap after he crashed against the barriers.

The team said the crash was not down to a damaged diffuser, as Liuzzi had first thought.

"I was hit hard at the first corner after the start by someone behind me and I think it must have damaged something, because the car was not right after that," Liuzzi said. "But I tried to do one more lap and then as I came over the bump at corner three I lost control.

"It was a real shame because I had a reasonably good starting position so I was optimistic I could do something good this afternoon."