David Coulthard and
Rubens Barrichello endured a disappointing return to Hockenheim after the
Formula One veterans were involved in a coming together during the German Grand Prix.
The pair were dicing for position on lap 50 of the race when Barrichello tried to make a move on the
Red Bull Racing man but the Scot moved across and the resulting contact forced the Brazilian out of the race.
It brought to an end a race that had started well for Barrichello as he made up positions in the early stages despite admitting that he lacked the pace to be truly competitive against his rivals.
"The race began well today as I gained a couple of positions at the start and our strategy was to run as long as possible,” he said. “Unfortunately we didn't have the pace to be competitive and we were really struggling with the traction. Our strategy was good but if we had been able to run for just another few laps it would have made my day, just as it did for Piquet Jr. Congratulations to him on his podium.
“The incident with Coulthard which ended my race was just unlucky. I was trying to force him to take a wider line on the outside through turn nine so that on turn ten, I would be able to come up the inside, but unfortunately he didn't see me on the inside and we touched. The team could see at the stop that there was too much damage to the front bargeboards to continue and that ended my race."
While Barrichello was forced into retirement, Coulthard was able to soldier on to take 13th place on his final German GP outing although it was a disappointing race for the Red Bull team with
Mark Webber failing to finish.
"It was a poor start,” he reflected. “Heidfeld ran wide in turn one, which pushed me wide and off the circuit, so a lot of people passed me there. I was stuck behind Jenson for 13 laps or so, he always seemed to have better traction so it was difficult to have a big dive at the end of braking. I got past him, as well as Rosberg before that.
