Coulthard: I can still win it

David Coulthard last night pledged to keep up his world title challenge against Michael Schumacher after a cruelly disappointing Canadian Grand Prix.

The Scot, later fined $5,000 for speeding in the pit lane, was forced to retire his stricken McLaren after 55 laps.

It was the first time he has failed to finish in the points this season and he now trails his Ferrari rival by 18 points in the championship standings. To add to Coulthard's troubles, he was caught travelling at 119.8kph when the limit is 80kph.

A defiant Coulthard said: 'There is no way that I will be giving up my battle, despite Michael's points advantage. There are still a lot of races to come and I can fight my way back into the frame.'

Coulthard gained some comfort from the fact that Schumacher was relegated to second place by his younger brother Ralf.

'The good thing from my point of view was that the younger Schumacher won, not his big brother,' said Coulthard. 'It limited the damage a little.' Coulthard's race was handicapped from the start by a problem with his car's suspension. He said:'Just as the race was beginning I pulled a nut from the cockpit floor and I realised then that we had a problem.

'I explained over the radio what the problem was and they checked through the spare car to try to identify just what was wrong.

'My car was pulling to the left and the front suspension seemed to drop on that side which caused me to have blisters on my backside. I knew from the start that it was not going to be good. The question was whether I could drive on with the problem that we had with the suspension.

'When you are looking to challenge for the world title, it's about scoring points even on a bad day and that's why I continued, despite losing ground on the Schumachers.

'But eventually the water temperature went up, the engine overheated and I was forced to retire.' But Coulthard refused to criticise the team.

He said:'The reliability of my car generally has been very good this year, so I cannot have too many complaints.

'The important thing is to put this behind us and concentrate on the races to come.'

Coulthard's team-mate, Mika Hakkinen, finished third. It was the first podium finish of a disappointing season for the Finn. Michael Schumacher, who had won four times previously in Canada, has 58 points against the 40 of Coulthard, but even he refuses to take his situation for granted.

The champion said: 'Although I'm pleased to have such a big lead, I realise that there is tremendous competition to come from McLaren, and there is also my brother to consider from now on. Ralf drove a tremendous race today and the Williams-BMW team has to be regarded very seriously indeed.'