Pain without gain for McNish.

The European Grand Prix produced little in the way of satisfaction for Allan McNish, despite the race taking place not far from his Toyota team's Cologne headquarters.

Despite starting the race from twelfth on the grid, the Scot could only claim 14th place at the chequered flag after a traction problems and a delayed pit-stop slowed his pace, but was also suffering in the cockpit of his TF102.

"My shoulder was extremely painful due to a new seat in the car," he explained, "The pain was so intense after my second stop that it was a miracle I finished the race at all. Only tomorrow will I know whether I can test next week, but I tell you one thing: I am not going to miss my home Grand Prix in Silverstone!"

Team-mate Mika Salo suffered handling problems for most of the race and retired nine laps from the end with suspected gearbox trouble.

"We agreed to take a chance on a one-stop strategy but, during the race, we realised the tyres we chose were suffering from the heavy fuel load," the Finn said, "This was why I went off a couple of times and lost positions. I had to come in earlier than scheduled for my stop for this reason too, and then had to stop again later to change tyres again. I think my retirement was a gearbox-related problem, but we have to do further checks before we can be sure."

"I have mixed feelings at the moment," commented team president Ove Andersson, "I am pleased that Allan made it home after our recent failures to finish. Having said that I thought we would have been stronger in the race following a good qualifying session yesterday. We have to look now to next week's test to find a solution to the problems we encountered today."