Coulthard content after tyre drama

stripped off his left-reartyre as he was speeding down the back straight at 200mph.

He jumped from the race car to the spare and back again but
never recovered
from losing time on the track. He was 3rd fastest.

'It was a bit frightening. It goes off like a gun when that
happens,' he said.

'Luckily it was on the straight and not in a braking point.

'If you lose the tread you can imagine what happens. You
could be in real
trouble. Anything could happen.'

'It happened between the first and second chicane.

'That kind of thing tends to grab your attention because it makes the car
act peculiarly
when you are going flat out.

'Given the circumstances I am happy to be third on the grid.
Of course you
want to be quickest, but all things considered I got away
lightly.

'I think I can have a good race. At least this time I won't
have to clean
up the inside of the track in the warm-up because I am
starting on the
racing line behind Mika this time.

'I've had a lot of practice on starts at Santa Pod, so we
should be good. I'll be careful on the first corner and then see what
happens after that,' said the Scot, who punted his team mate into a spin on the first lap of the Austrian Grand Prix a week ago.