Force India laments troubled start

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella crashed into the back of Williams' Kazuki Nakajima, the Italian saying Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais had changed direction twice, leaving him with no place to go.

Fisichella retired right there.

Meanwhile, teammate Adrian Sutil made contact with Bourdais' teammate Sebastian Vettel and was forced to pit to replace his front wing after the opening lap.

Sutil went on to finish in 16th position.

"Obviously our race became very difficult after the first three corners with Giancarlo going off at the first corner and Adrian losing his front wing," said Gascoyne.

"With the safety car we were able to get Adrian back out and his first couple of stints were good, particularly the middle one when he was staying with the group in front.

"He was pretty consistent, but once we started to get blue flags it was difficult to keep the temperature in the tyres and that made the last stint very difficult.

"It was however very important for Adrian to get a race finish today, which he did. We now move onto the next race in Monaco, a track that both drivers have performed well on."