Coulthard Facing 'Titanic' Task

McLaren-Mercedes driver David Coulthard says he faces a titanic job in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix after qualifying 14th on the grid in Saturday's qualifying session.

Coulthard completed an error-strewn run, which team boss Ron Dennis branded as "unacceptable", as teammate Kimi Raikkonen secured second on the grid. The Scot admitted he now has a mammoth task ahead of him.

"It's definitely a bit of the raising of the Titanic required tomorrow from 14th," Coulthard said. "It's going to be tricky. I dropped the bat at the last corner. I was just trying to finish the lap, not make up what I hadn't gained around the rest of the lap, so I was a little bit surprised.

"I have got to make the best of this, keeping out of trouble at the start when there is all sorts of action going on. It's very important that I get some points tomorrow. This just sums up the difficulty I have had this weekend knowing where the car is. And Kimi doesn't even know where his time came from."

Coulthard, who has finished in the points in each of his Austrian races, said that McLaren had expected to be in the middle of the top ten despite Raikkonen's front row performance and accepted that his hopes of a podium finish have been dashed.

"I didn't expect to be front rowing, but if I could have been in the middle of the top 10 that would have given me the place to go for a podium," he added. "But now it's going to be difficult with all the traffic."