Montoya up in smoke

Montoya was let down in Germany by engine troubles

By BBC motor racing correspondent Jonathan Legard

Words failed Juan Pablo Montoya at Hockenheim. Just like his BMW engine.

"I am so disappointed I cannot find the words to describe how I feel," he said.

What made it worse was the identity of the eventual winner, Ralf Schumacher, the Williams team-mate with whom he has an increasingly strained partnership.

Montoya had every reason to fume. He had done everything right from his first pole position in Formula One.

He had got to the first corner first, not once but twice as the race restarted because of the collision between Michael Schumacher and Luciano Burti.

He built up a commanding lead, noticeably faster than the other Williams. Then within a matter of laps the boy from Bogota was storming for the exit as his race unravelled horribly.

The disappointment was all the greater because Montoya's recovery from the messy performances in Monaco and Montreal had been impressive.

Jonathan Legard

First the Williams refuelling hose failed him and made his pit stop three times as long as it should have been.

Then as he rounded the final turn in second place two laps later, blue smoke became clouds of white as his engine expired in front of the grandstands.

Race over. His second retirement in the last three race weekends because of a BMW breakdown.

The disappointment was all the greater because his recovery from his messy performances in Monaco and Montreal had been impressive.

He had been the quicker Williams driver at Magny-Cours, Silverstone and Hockenheim.

He had heeded the words of team bosses Frank Williams and Patrick Head, who had advised him to cool it and be patient.

Montoya was forced to call it a day at Hockenheim

"These cars are very difficult to learn," said Williams. "You can't rush. You need time to adjust."

But the rewards have yet to come.

"He's obviously very disappointed but he's a strong boy and he can see that he's building the platform for a championship challenge next year," said Head, the Williams technical director.

BMW's director of motorsport, Gerhard Berger, offered his sympathy with genuine feeling.

He lost one German Grand Prix when his engine blew up on the last lap as he was heading towards the chequered flag.

"It's really a shame Juan Pablo retired with a broken engine," he said. "He was so strong here, setting one lap record after another. We have to improve our reliability."

Team troubles

McLaren will be saying much the same thing.

Ralf Schumacher is closing in fast on David Coulthard in the drivers' championship, and Williams are doing the same to McLaren in the constructors' table.

But Ron Dennis will not be alone in cracking the whip over Formula One's three-week break.

Eddie Jordan's controversial sacking of Heinz-Harald Frentzen has provoked nothing but bad feeling and bad performances.

Hockenheim was a desperate weekend: The team's worst qualifying of the year followed by two more retirements.

If it wasn't an engine failure - Jarno Trulli suffered at least three - it was driver error, usually involving Ricardo Zonta, who looked ill at ease in his return to F1's front-line.

It was a miserable weekend for Eddie Jordan

He's already been told he's not considered a long term solution at Jordan.

And if the team succeeds in prising Jean Alesi from Prost for the next race in Hungary, the Brazilian could prove to be one of the most short-lived replacements into the bargain.

Prost have indicated they will contest any attempt by Jordan to break his contract but I understand that Alesi has good enough reason to claim Prost are in breach of contract if they block his departure.

As it is, Prost are once more in financial turmoil, reportedly unable to afford new napkins or overalls.

Alesi is well known to Jordan, having won the Formula 3000 championship with the team.

But he has high-level detractors within the team and the move, if it comes off, may not cool the tensions inflamed by Frentzen's shock dismissal.

The news that Formula One's most charismatic team owner is turning his hand to football investments - not necessarily Manchester United, apparently - couldn't have become public at a more trying time.

Jordan have a long way to travel before they're bracketed in the same class as the Premiership champions.