Two time Silverstone winner Coulthard suffered the most at the hands of the communications technology, making a total of four problematic pit stops and falling to tenth in the race - two laps behind the winning trio of Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Juan Pablo Montoya.

'It has been a terrible afternoon for the entire team," said the frustrated Scot in a press release. "At the first stop I went on the radio to say that I was coming in and whilst the mechanics could hear me, the pit wall was had some interference on their radios from the digital TV commentators and was unable to hear me.

"When the team then told me to come in, I was already past the pit lane entry. Then the information we had available told us that it might stop raining so I stayed out for another lap, but then it started to rain heavily.

"We just seemed to be on the wrong tyres at the wrong time. In addition I had experienced some problems with the brakes before the race which we tried to fix on the grid but when it started to rain I found it really hard to brake at Club Corner and I think I went off four times. To be honest this is a British Grand Prix I would prefer to forget."

Raikkonen, who had driven a superb race in the opening laps before the first downpour to be placed as high as second, eventually retired with an engine problem. "My start was good and I was as quick as the leaders," commented the young Finn.

"On lap three I overtook Ralf Schumacher and everything was fine but then the rain started. Immediately I went into the pits but unfortunately I hadn't informed my crew early enough and they were not quite ready and I think this just upset our usual rhythm. Eventually an engine problem finished my race on lap 45."

Team principle Ron Dennis added: "Our dry weather performance supported the view that a podium place today was possible. Kimi and David drove extremely well in the early stages.

"Our weather forecasting was not as accurate as we would have liked but in fairness it's always a problem for the meteorologists here in Britain. Unexpected pit stops coupled with significant interference on our pit wall communications systems did not place us in a position for even a top six result.

"As always we will learn from our mistakes and try hard to ensure that they are not repeated in future races. At the end of the day it was the same for everybody and other teams did a better job."