Theissen keeps it positive

Juan Pablo Montoya was running third in the race before gearbox problems intervened, causing him to fall rapidly off the pace and being classified 13th after stopping on the track. Team-mate Ralf Schumacher clashed with BAR's Takuma Sato before fighting his way up to seventh.

But Theissen said there were some good points to come out of the weekend. "We shouldn't dramatise things," he declared. "Of course, this wasn't the result we had hoped for. But we are leaving Bahrain with some positive impressions.

"We took our best qualifying result of the season so far and, although Ferrari has again proved to be in a class of its own in race trim, we have been able to further reduce the gap in this area, lapping only 0.5 seconds slower."

Theissen's positive outlook clashed with that of his driver, Montoya, who said after the race that his Williams clearly did not have the speed to beat the Ferraris.