“I was very happy with my qualifying lap yesterday and I was fuelled for a long first stint from fourth on the grid, so it was all a little bit frustrating,” Trulli admitted. After an afternoon like that, a point is better than nothing but it could have been so much more. We had a problem firing up the engine on the grid, which meant that we had people on the grid after the 15s signal, resulting in a Drive Through penalty. After that I made my first pit stop earlier than expected because I was stuck in traffic. There wasn’t much I could do because it’s difficult to pass at the Nürburgring. If the cards had fallen for me today, bearing in mind what happened to Raikkonen, it’s not impossible that I could even have won.”

Schumacher, describing his experience at the Nürburgring’s notoriously tight first corner, explained: “I made a reasonable start and was being cautious into Turn 1 because I know how easy it is to get caught out. I was close behind Fernando Alonso when all of a sudden he came to an almost complete stop. I was unsighted and became involved in the tangle. There was nothing I could do and I lost the nose, which forced me to make an unscheduled pit stop, putting me over a minute behind. I was pushing hard to make up lost ground but, close behind Sato I lost front-end grip in Turn 5, understeered into the kerb and spun. That was the end of my race and all I can do is hope for better luck in Canada.”

Raikkonen was just one lap short of a hat-trick of wins for West McLaren Mercedes when he suffered a mechanical problem caused by a vibration and crashed. Fernando Alonso therefore scored his fourth win of the year for Mild Seven Renault, reinforcing his position at the top of the championship table. Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Williams finished second for the second successive race and Rubens Barrichello was third for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. David Coulthard was fourth for Red Bull Racing, Michael Schumacher took fifth in the second Ferrari, and Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth in the second Renault, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya’s McLaren Mercedes. Jarno’s TF105 completed the points scorers.

Panasonic Toyota Racing’s chief race engineer Dieter Gass said: “When the engine didn’t fire up we couldn’t get the spare starter quickly enough to get off the grid in time. Jarno’s penalty was unlucky because he had shown strong pace and was well placed for another strong race. Ralf also got caught up in the first corner accident through no fault of his own and so overall it was a disappointing outcome, although Jarno did well to salvage a point. It came our way directly after misfortune for one of our competitors, but that’s motor racing. The positive element of the weekend is that once again we showed strong pace and first class reliability.”

As Formula 1 now turns its attention to the ‘flyaway’ races in Canada and the USA, Alonso has a 32-point lead at the top of the drivers’ championship with Raikkonen and Trulli both on 27 points and Heidfeld fourth with 25. Panasonic Toyota Racing retains third place in the constructors’ championship, one point clear of the BMW Williams F1 Team.