Villeneuve crowns Honda's F1 return

The British American Racing driver made an excellent start from eighth on the grid to record three points for the team - who last year finished without a single point.

Team-mate Ricardo Zonta finished seventh in Melbourne, but was later awarded sixth place - his first ever points finish - following the disqualification of Sauber's Mika Salo.

Villeneuve said: "It feels great. I knew we would be able to score points today and after the struggle of the last year, it is good to finally achieve this.

"To do it in our first race with Honda is excellent.

"I had hoped that we could get on the podium, but Ralf (Schumacher) passed me in the pitstops, although I really thought that the Williams wouldn't last the distance.

"This is a great start to the season and gives us something to build on."

Technical director of Honda Racing Development, Kazutoshi Nishizawa said: "We had one target in mind and that was reliability.

"We achieved this objective and got our reward.

"Without reliability we can only lose, but on its own, it is not enough to win. We will continue to develop the engine, particularly in terms of adding performance to the reliability.

"We do need more competitiveness, but we have achieved our first objective."