(*Australian term meaning 'not very good'!)
After a good start by David, Jarno Trulli made contact with the Scot's car on the first lap of the race. 'Silly arse' said David, or at least, something to that effect…. On lap seven, Christian went off the track and into the wall, and became one of nine retirements of the afternoon. Coulthard completed the race in ninth place.
RACE STATISTICSTrack Temperature: 28C Race Distance: 307.574kmAir Temperature: 20 C Circuit Length: 5.303kmLaps: 58
DAVID COULTHARD, (Car 14)Finish Position: 9 Time: 1:35:21.853 Chassis: 3 Start Position: 11
"Scott Speed overtook me under a yellow flag. The Stewards asked me to explain the incident, which occurred under the yellow flag for Tonio's accident. The data shows that Scott overtook while the yellow flags were being waved. On the first lap, I passed Jarno Trulli on Turn two. Going into Turn three I looked into the mirror and saw him coming so I moved over, but he ran wide so I passed him again. In Turn six he did the same thing. However, this time I didn't see him coming, he side-swiped me and hit the side of my car putting me in the gravel and himself out of the race. There was no way he was going to make the corner."
CHRISTIAN KLIEN, (Car 15)Finish Position: R Time: n/a Chassis: 2 Start Position: 13"There was a safety car period at the beginning of the race and it very difficult to warm up my tyres. I struggled a lot with that, it made it really tricky to drive the car and I was also on a very heavy fuel load. On lap seven, I touched the brakes, the rear locked or something broke, I'm not sure, and I went off the track into the wall. There was nothing I could do. The crash looked worse than it was I think. It felt as if I got hit twice on the rear of my car on the first lap of the race and nearly went off on the first corner as a result, but I don't think that was related to my going off the track later on. I'm really disappointed."
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: "Unfortunately both cars were victims of other drivers exuberance on the first lap. David made a very good start overtaking both Schumacher and Trulli, but further round the lap Trulli made a very optimistic manoeuvre, which pushed David to the back of the field. Christian was involved with the incident between Massa and Rosberg and took a big knock on the rear of his car. A couple of laps later he had quite a large accident, which may have been a result of the earlier incident. Obviously, until we've seen all the data and examined all the components, we won't have the answer on that."
