Adrian Sutil's rotten luck at his home Grand Prix continued on Sunday as Force India missed out on a points finish for only the second time this season in Germany.
Sutil was forced to start the race at Hockenheim from 19th on the grid after being given a penalty for an engine change.
He then collided with team-mate Tonio Liuzzi on the first lap, which damaged the Italian's front wing.
That forced Liuzzi to pit for a new wing, but Sutil had also planned to stop at the same time for a tyre change, causing confusion when the pair came in together.
To make matters worse, they both had the wrong set of tyres put on their cars and as a result had to come in again.
"What can we say, it's been a very disappointing weekend," admitted Sutil after his 17th place finish.
"The first lap I had some contact with Tonio and lost some positions. It was always our strategy that, if after the start I had not made up places, I would pit on the first lap to change to the prime tyres and make up positions when other cars stopped later on.
"It was a good plan as you have nothing to lose when you are that far down, but there was some confusion in the stop.
"Tonio had radioed to say he was coming in for a front wing change and as we both arrived at the same time the tyre sets got mixed up and then I had to come in and pit again to get the correct set.
"Once they were on I got going and I could get quite far up the field but then I had to stop when the set went off.
"This weekend we've just not been quick enough but we feel it's just a blip and not anything too serious - at some races you just don't run well, so it's best to write it off and look forward to the next races."
Liuzzi fared little better for the Silverstone-based team. He had a huge accident in the first session of qualifying on Saturday which forced it to be temporarily halted.
The Italian finished 16th after starting 22nd and afterwards echoed Sutil's sentiments, saying: "It's been a pretty disappointing race weekend overall.
"It was a shame as I had had a good first lap until that point and afterwards we had a really strong race pace.
"It was always going to be tough, but the pace we showed was the same as the top ten runners."
The team have little time to dwell on the result as they head straight to Budapest for this weekend's Hugarian Grand Prix.
