Unhappy Head Critical of Frentzen

Williams-BMW technical director Patrick Head blamed Sauber driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen for ruining Juan Pablo Montoya's chances of victory in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Montoya's pursuit of Championship rival and eventual race-winner Michael Schumacher was slowed as Frentzen, running in seventh place, refused to move aside to let the Williams driver through. Head insisted that Frentzen - who later retired - should have moved over to allow the Championship race to take its natural course despite claiming that Montoya's second-place finish is still enough to keep his title hopes alive.

"Montoya's trouble in chasing Michael was initiated by Frentzen holding him up for a second," said Head, who saw Marc Gene finish fifth for the team as a stand-in for the injured Ralf Schumacher. "When you get down to this stage in a Championship then you should respect the people that are fighting for the Championship.

"After that, I don't know quite what happened. Maybe he had a problem I don't know. But we've gone back two points relative to Michael. Traffic put him (Montoya) back to begin with but he had a problem on top of that. He was going a second slower than Marc Gene for eight or ten laps. But with 20 points to play for it is still wide open."

Montoya, who is three points behind Schumacher in the standings, was also critical of the actions of Frentzen as well as other backmarkers who hampered his quest to snatch victory.

"We got pretty close (to Schumacher) but I twice lost a lot of time behind a Jordan driver," Montoya said. "It was very difficult and I lost about a year behind Frentzen. On the straight there were 10 or 12 blue flags and these guys didn't move. Once or twice I thought I was going to hit them it was that bad.

"I think it was down to very slow backmarkers who would not move out of the way. But I do not think I would have caught Michael anyway."