Coulthard philosophical after early exit

The Red Bull driver, who has now retired after recording 246 starts in his career, was tapped into a spin by Williams driver Nico Rosberg and then collected by the German's teammate Kazuki Nakajima, who destroyed the front-right corner of Coulthard's car.

"If I had qualified a bit higher up the grid away from the maybe it would have helped," quipped Coulthard when asked if he could have done anything to avoid the crash by ITV.

"But no, I took a cautious approach into Turn One, left plenty of room for the car on the inside and then unfortunately Rosberg hit me in Turn Two and spun me around.

"Then Nakajima and I finished off our crashing love affair, and he took off my front corner."

But despite having missed the chance to savour his final Grand Prix, Coulthard said he had no regrets, adding that his loss in Brazil was also the crowd's.

"I felt good in the warm-up laps going to the grid, I had no problem driving in the wet," he said. "I wanted to get to the chequered flag and I was going to do some doughnuts for the crowd. But it didn't work out.

"I still can't complain, I've had a good career and thank you to everyone who supported me over the years."