Formula 1: Frentzen disappointed with 12th place

Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished 12th at the Japanese Grand Prix.

But he believes he could have done much better had he not made contact with a Jaguar in the race.

Team-mate Tomas Enge retired after 42 laps.

But frentzen said: "I started the race with a huge handicap since I had an early contact with Pedro De la Rosa which broke my front wing.

"Broken pieces were stuck underneath my car and I had to drive at the speed of a bicycle to the pits where the team changed my car's nose.

"The car was really fine after that and I attacked each lap very hard trying to catch the time lost back.

"I had an exciting race actually, with several good overtakings. I must say this was one of the toughest race of my career: each lap was like a qualifying lap and it was very demanding to race at that speed.

"But I really enjoyed it. I want to thank all the team for giving me such a reliable car and for the very good job done since we started working together."

Enge said: "Unfortunately everything went wrong for me in this race. I was a bit disturbed that Verstappen overtook in the formation lap and did not know whether I should overtake him back.

"We decided that I would start from behind him. My start did not go really well, and I have been held up in the traffic for a while, especially by Verstappen until he got his penalty on lap 17.

"After my first pit-stop things went better, I pushed hard and improved my times lap by lap.

"Unfortunately, I made a mistake when I looked at Minardi's pitboard and thought the team was calling me in.

"They were obviously not ready when I went into the pits and I came back again the following lap.

"This cost us a lot of time of course, but anyway, soon after I experienced a brake problem. I did another stop so that the team could check the problem and went back on the track, but I came back to the garage immediately. It would not have been safe to continue.

"This is not an ideal end to the season but I want to thank the team warmly for giving me the opportunity to drive in the three last races. This was the hardest and most exciting school of my life. Now I hope I can build up on this to be on the starting grid next season."