Tyre issues deflate Webber.

Williams-Cosworth's hopes of ending a five race run of failing to score points were ruined by a curious tyre issue that harked back to the 2005 Turkish Grand Prix, when they were hit by a similar problem.

Indeed, it was a big disappointment for the team, and particularly Mark Webber, after they got themselves into a strong position courtesy of a good start from the Australian, who then proceeded to embark on a thrilling battle with Pedro de la Rosa.

Together with Jarno Trulli's retirement, Webber would almost certainly have finished in at least eighth place and claimed a point.

However, he was pitched off the circuit when an overheating Bridgestone tyre deflated suddenly, while another puncture on the following lap indicated that there was a further problem with the car. With the car seemingly dangerous to drive and the points finish out of reach, Webber was retired from the race.

"Of course I'm massively disappointed because we could have scored a point here today. I was trying hard to stay with the quicker guys but we had some heat issues with the inside edge of the tyre and then the aerodynamics were affected as a result of the damage. We're making it very hard work for ourselves at the moment, everyone is working so hard but we don't have anything to show for it."

Williams suffered a similar delamination problem at Istanbul last year, with Sam Michael admitting that they will need to look into why it keeps happening to them.

"We had problems with our tyres running over temperature. We didn't see any sign of it in practice so it caught us out in the race. We then had a wheel rim failure on Mark's car so we retired him early as he had too much damage. We will need to look into both of these issues to ensure they don't occur again."

Nico Rosberg meanwhile struggled round to a lowly 14th place and two laps down on the lead lap after a race spent struggling with a handful of car, an issue further compounded by his unscheduled stop to check over his car in light of Webber's problems.

"It was very hard for me today, first of all because I started from the back and then because the car was very difficult to drive. I was doing one qualifying lap after another, and I was on the limit all the time, but I just couldn't drive any quicker. We were struggling with the tyres, and I was also unlucky with the pitstops. When we decided to stop for the first time, Button also pitted just in front of me and I lost some time there. "