Williams hit by brake problems

Team personnel have admitted that Williams needs to improve its race pace. Poor starts from both drivers also attributed to the team's inability to make an impact on a race in which it was outperformed by Ferrari, Renault and BAR.

"It was a pretty disappointing day when you consider our race pace in comparison to the frontrunners," said chief operations engineer Sam Michael. "We also made a bad judgement with the brake cooling which ultimately forced Juan to retire and Ralf was on the limit with his brakes for the whole race."

Montoya's problems began on lap three and eventually caused him to run over his front jackman during a pitstop. "The brake pedal was very long all day," he said, "and when I got to the first stop I had nearly no brakes. Then they came back. And then when Fisichella pitted I started pushing really hard.

"I was doing everything with the engine and they told me to come in. I came in quite slow and when I pressed the brakes there was nothing. I knew this race was going to be a nightmare."

Team-mate Schumacher could manage only marginally better, but salvaged three points after finishing a distant sixth. "The result, more or less, reflects our current performances," said the German. "We could not have achieved a much better position, even with a better start.

"Furthermore, I had to fight very early on with some brake problems, which meant I had to be very gentle on them until the end. I knew Barcelona was not among our favourite tracks, however I expected more. We must work very hard on our performance in order to make our way back to the top."