Two flats for Pantano

Pantano was one of three drivers to suffer punctures during the Hockenheim race, but he was highly unfortunate to endure blow-outs on two separate occasions. He finished 15th.

"In the first part of the race our lap times were very good, then a lap before I planned to stop we had a flat tyre so I had to slow right down as I came into the pits," said Pantano. "Just before the end I had another flat tyre on the same corner [front left]. I'm not unhappy though because the car had a good balance, it was consistent and the lap times were good. We were just a little bit unlucky."

Team-mate Nick Heidfeld failed to see the flag, however, after decided to pull into the garage and retire his ill-handling machine.

"It was tough today," said Heidfeld. "I started to have balance problems with the car quite early on and I thought it would stabilise but it was getting worse and worse. I had to do an extra stop, coming in again the lap after my second scheduled stop, so the team could have a look at the tyres and the suspension but they didn't find anything so I went out again on different tyres.

"The problem was getting dramatically worse from that point on and I thought it was getting dangerous and difficult to hold the car on the circuit, so we decided to retire. The team are checking what was causing the problem."