Toyota's nightmare weekend continues

The team had struggled all weekend to find a good set-up for its TF103, and da Matta confessed that his tenth place finish was about the best the team could manage.

"At the start, I pressed the launch control button as I normally do and the car just stalled," said da Matta. "There was something wrong with the launch electronics. For the restart and the pit stops, we decided to not risk it and instead did manual starts.

Olivier Panis's retirement was caused when he hit something on the track, although the Frenchman was unsure as to exactly what. He said: "I felt something hit the barge board and there was a puncture on the front left tyre. Basically I turned in and the car simply continued straight on and I had to stop."

Over Andersson, Toyota's team principal, said that the team must learn from its troubled performance. "I am very disappointed," he said. "This whole weekend we have not found a good set-up on the car. We struggled badly on Friday morning and have spent the rest of the weekend trying to catch up. Cristiano did well to get tenth after the problem at the star put him at the back of the grid.

"As for Olivier, I just cannot believe how one man can have such bad luck. The only thing we can do is to learn from this weekend and look to improve for the next race."