Terrible weekend for Williams

Schumacher got caught up in the accident between Eddie Irvine and Jos Verstappen on lap 30 and Button's car sluiced to a halt three laps from the flag after water got to the electronics.

"A very poor race for us today," said Head. "We may have been guilty of letting the car out for too long on dry tyre, but there was plenty of potential for points today.

"Ralf got caught up in someone else accident and Jenson's footwell got exposed to the rain when he collided with Johnny Herbert, and it looks like we have experienced some kind of electrical shutdown."

Schumacher said: "I had brake problems and had to pump to get them to work, which meant I had a couple of excursions. Then I saw the Irvine accident coming and thought they would slide clear of me, but the Jaguar came back around in front of me and I was already accelerating then."

BMW boss Gerhard Berger said there was at least some consolation - they held onto third in the constructors championship. Benetton picked up two points to overhaul Jordan for fourth place.

"It's a cold comfort but at least we haven't lost position in the constructors," said Berger. "This was not our day."

Ferrari have 62 points, McLaren 52, Williams 15, Benetton 10 and Jordan 9.