Coulthard's hopes are cornered off

David Coulthard accused Jarno Trulli of derailing his fading championship chances yesterday after the two were forced to retire following a first-corner collision at the British Grand Prix.

Coulthard, who retired on lap two with broken rear suspension, following the shunt, was forced to sit in the McLaren motorhome and watch as his team-mate Mika Hakkinen stormed to his first win of the season. More damaging though was Michael Schumacher's second-place, a result that now moves the German 37-points37 points clear of Coulthard in the title race.

After the race, Coulthard accused Trulli of causing the accident at Copse Corner and said that the Italian should have backed off. "Jarno had the better start but I was ahead. He was not in the championship battle and you've got to give it (the corner) up at some point. Two into one doesn't go. I had the lead and he should have backed off."

Trulli though insisted that the accident was simply a racing incident and that he had legitimate cause to attack Coulthard after the Scot was forced to take evasive action when Hakkinen braked hard into turn one. "I don't think he saw me, or he didn't want to give it up," said the Jordan pilot.

"He took the outside line but he didn't give me space to avoid an accident. It was a racing incident and David and I will talk about it, although generally, I think the car on the outside should leave enough room to move for the inside car."

Trulli's early departure from the race was the beginning of yet another troubled grand prix for Jordan. After Trulli and team-mate Heinz Harald Frentzen had qualified their EJ11s in fourth and fifth respectively, the team was guardedly confident that they could build on their good showing at Mangny Cours two weeks ago.

Confidence turned to catastrophe with Trullis' exit and the afternoon was later capped by Heinz Harald Frentzen's poor showing, the German finishing a disappointing seventh behind both the Saubers of Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld. scoring points that move the The Swiss team is now four points ahead of fourth-placed Jordan in the constructors' title.

Frentzen later blamed his poor showing on a component breaking on his car when he attempted to pass Heidfeld for sixth. "On my second attack trying to overtake him (Heidfeld), I felt something break on the car which resulted in heavy understeer and was reflected in my uncompetitive lap times towards the end of the race."