Ralf critical of DC's 'optimistic' move.

BMW WilliamsF1 driver, Ralf Schumacher has hit out at David Coulthard, branding his move during the Chinese Grand Prix Sunday a bit too 'optimistic'.

Ralf, who had been forced to miss the last six races, following his horrific crash at the United States Grand Prix in June, was forced to retire as a result.

"It's a true pity that my race had an early end," he reflected.

"My car had a puncture following contact with Coulthard. He tried to overtake me but I think his move was a bit too optimistic. Anyway, I came into the pits to fix the car, which we thought had been damaged but after a careful look, the engineers decided that I could continue the race. However, too much time had elapsed by then and it was too late to get out on track again, because I would have been two laps down.

"It's a shame, because my race had been good until then and I had been fighting in the top five positions. It's true I had lost a place at the start, but all in all I was in a position to collect some useful points."

DC was some-what apologetic for his 'error'...

"I unfortunately had a coming together with Ralf Schumacher at the hairpin and damaged my left front wheel," stated the Scot. "I'm sorry for him, but it also affected my race significantly as I could have finished higher up in the points.

"It took me quite some time to reach the pits to replace the wheel. At the end of day, the team could have used the points, but at least we put on a good show in China."

WilliamsF1 technical director Sam Michael meanwhile branded it a 'racing incident'.

"On lap 37, Ralf had an incident with Coulthard which resulted in a puncture and caused him to pit," he explained. "Unfortunately we were expecting Juan Pablo for his pit-stop. What happened between Ralf and Coulthard was a racing incident and unfortunately it resulted in Ralf's car not scoring points."