Williams bemoan lack of luck in China

Nico Rosberg's afternoon was wrecked by a puncture, which forced an unscheduled pitstop, while Alexander Wurz suffered a repeat of the tyre issues that had marred his pace in qualifying when the track dried out.

Director of engineer Patrick Head said: "Our grid position rather dictated our race, but the conditions were difficult today and we might have been luckier.

"Nico was certainly driving a very good race and overtaking cars but he sustained a puncture which also damaged some bodywork.

"As a consequence, he had to make an unscheduled stop without which it was quite possible he would have been among the points.

"As it was, we sent him out on the wrong tyres for the conditions and that was that. Alex's race was dictated by a poor grid position. The race was disappointing for both the drivers and the team."

Wurz, who put in some very fast laps when he made the switch to dry tyres, said: "I guess I was hoping for more rain today.

"The conditions worked well for me at the beginning and I was the first one to put on dry tyres, which initially worked well for the conditions, so we thought we'd pulled a rabbit out of the hat, but eventually we experienced a similar problem to yesterday with tyre grip and we just dropped back in performance."

Rosberg added: "It didn't quite work out for us today. I had a poor start which dropped me back, but then it was working pretty well for me in the wet and I passed several cars.

"In the next stint, we had switched to dry tyres and we had the same problem we experienced yesterday in qualifying with the tyres. On lap 29, I got a left rear puncture at the end of the straight, but I am not sure what caused it as I didn't make contact with anyone else.

"Obviously it cost me to come in for an extra stop and that was the end of my race. I am now looking forward to Brazil and to end this season with a good result."