Coulthard: Safety car move was right

The safety car was used to control the field instead of red flagging the race. Coulthard led under the safety car until he spun off because of gearbox problems before the race got going again.

"There's always that question [over red flag]," said the Scot. "I've always felt that to deprive the spectators of a number of cars in a first corner incident is not good for the business, but this isn't Hollywood, it's real, and you don't cut out the bits you don't like. As long as it's always consistent and a driver is not hurt or trapped in a car, they will send out the safety car. That's the policy they run to and so long as it's applied consistently, then that's fine.

"There was a bit of oil at Turn 3 and I got on the radio to say I thought they should put some cement dust down and I believe my team manager e-mailed race control to tell them. The safety car got sideways on it in front of me and I think they had time, but I guess that's all part of the hazard."

The gearbox problem stopped Coulthard from scoring points in the opening race of the year. "I experienced a downshift problem as the safety car pulled off when I was in front," he said. "Then it was running faultlessly again which was very confusing. Then it happened again and eventually I got stuck in sixth gear and had to retire. It was frustrating because I recognise the importance of getting points early in the season."

McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen finished on the podium in his first race for McLaren.