Monday March 18th, 2002

Scot David Coulthard admitted after Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix that his Championship challenge is suffering because of his former Williams team.

Coulthard completed his second successive pointless race of the season at Sepang while Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya scored a one-two finish ahead of Michael Schumacher.

McLaren driver Coulthard has openly admitted that he already has only "an outside chance" of winning the world title this year.

"It's not good," Coulthard admitted. "You have got to say that the fact Williams are so strong really adds to the difficulty. The Championship is already only an outside chance because I have got to win the next two races to get myself back into the normal hunt.

"And when Ralf was talking about Brazil he referred to Ferrari as his competition. McLaren wasn't even a thought. That hurts."

Coulthard is yet to score a point and trails World Champion Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher by 14, with Montoya and Ralf Schumacher on 12 and 10 respectively. The Scot was troubled by gearbox problems in Australia, and was forced to retire from the Malaysian race to prevent the Mercedes engine in his McLaren from blowing up.

Both Michael Schumacher and Montoya have completed both races so far, while Ralf Schumacher was involved in the dramatic startline crash in Australia but came back to win in Sepang.

Rubens Barrichello, the Ferrari teammate of World Champion Schumacher, remains the only other driver of the main Championship contenders yet to finish a race this year.

Published at 14:08:00 GMT