Kovalainen encouraged by Lotus pace

"It was still a very positive race for us, despite the issues," said the Finn, who had finished the first two races of the season.

"My start wasn't fantastic and it meant I dropped immediately to the back. After that I got into a good rhythm, but started to see some issues on the dash.

"I tried to make a move on di Grassi, but clipped his front wing when I was going past and damaged my left rear tyre, so had to come in to pit.

"Even with the problems we had the car was competitive and I was very comfortable. Compared to the other new teams our times are very competitive indeed, so I'm not going to let this race trouble me - we learned a lot and now we'll move on and look ahead to China," he added.

Team-mate Jarno Trulli went on to finish in 15th position after making contact early on with Virgin's Timo Glock.

"We made a good start, but then on the second lap I was hit by Glock, which made me spin, and from then on my race was compromised," said the Italian.

"Despite that I got the car home to the end and that shows our focus on reliability has been worth the effort."