Rubens retires after contact with David Coulthard

Rubens was fighting hard in 15th but his race ended on lap 50 when he and Coulthard collided at turn 8, forcing the Honda driver into retirement. "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 commented. “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 10 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."