Robert Kubica blamed a poor pit-stop and a broken radio for his disappointing display in Belgium that realistically ended his slim hopes of winning the world championship. The BMW Sauber driver could only finish sixth in the changeable conditions at Spa-Francorchamps and with only five races left of the season he now trails the championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 18 points. The Polish racer said: "I am not happy with the result, as today I had the chance to finish on the podium.
"We had a problem during the second pit stop. I lost two or three positions and returned to the track behind Nick [Heidfeld, his teammate]. "When it started raining he went into the pits to change tyres. I could not do the same as it would have cost too much time because I was directly behind Nick, so it would have meant us coming into the pits together. "Also I had no information about the weather as I had problems with my radio. We gave away points today. However, that's racing."
The Pole, who led the championship after the seventh round of the season, has fallen away from the leaders in the points standing, and considering he has picked up only 16 points from the last six races, a late tilt for the title looks unlikely. Kubica is looking forward though to this weekend's race in Italy at Monza, a track he has fond memories of. He said: "Monza is very special to me as I achieved my first podium there in 2006 in only my third Formula One race. To mark this special point in my career I will again have a slightly different helmet design in Monza. As I grew up as a driver in Italy, I know a lot of people there and quite a lot of Italian fans will be cheering for me."
@Email:gcaygill@thenational.ae