Williams vow to solve exhaust problems

Australian Mark Webber looked set for third place when he was forced to retire on lap 49 due to the problem.

A similar issue caused Nico Rosberg to retire too when the German's throttle got stuck, his car hitting the barriers three laps after Webber had left the race.

Williams, who have scored just 10 points in seven races, are now going to focus on making sure the problems are not repeated.

"It was a shame that both drivers had to stop the race due to exhaust failures that then allowed hot exhaust gas to burn through wiring looms," said technical director Sam Michael. "Up until then Mark was doing really well and he was in line for a strong second place. The car was really competitive and had a lot of fuel on board.

"The qualifying pace of the car was clearly good as well if you look at the lengths of the first stints compared to the other front running cars, so it's a shame we didn't come away with more points from this circuit. Nico's race suffered from the result of poor qualifying which left him stuck in traffic right from the beginning.

"We now must get to the bottom of the exhaust problems that have affected us today and ensure they are fixed."