Villeneuve Laments Driving Error

The 1997 World Champion, hoping to recover from a disappointing qualifying, was running in 14th position when he lost control of his Sauber at the end of the first corner on lap 27.

Villeneuve spun into the gravel and had to retire from the race.

"From the start of the race I was aiming to be as consistent as possible," said Villeneuve. "I was able to build on the progress that we started to make with the car in qualifying yesterday afternoon and again this morning.

"In particular I am gaining more and more confidence with the brakes and was locking the fronts momentarily going into Turn One, the way I like to. Then on lap 27 I locked the rears braking hard into the corner and spun, and couldn't get restarted."

Sauber endured a disappointing day, with Brazilian Felipe Massa finishing in 10th place for the second race in succession.

"After my second stop I started having a problem with oversteer in Turn 12," said Massa. "On one lap I had to take a lot of the kerb because of that, and after that the car seemed to lose a lot of rear downforce and was almost undriveable at competitive speed."