Davidson says sorry to Button

Button was running in sixth place on lap 31 when he came upon Davidson on the run to the penultimate corner of the circuit. The Minardi driver ran off the track at the chicane, but afterwards moved to the left of the circuit, allowing Button to hold the racing line to the right. But the Renault ace clipped the grass with his right rear before turning into the left-hander, spun into the gravel and out of the race.

Although Davidson appeared to have given Button more than enough room, the 23-year-old was quick to shoulder the blame for his former karting rival's retirement.

"I'm pretty pleased with today, but I'm disappointed that I got in Jenson's way and ruined his race," Davidson told ITV. "I'm really sorry for that."

But Button blamed himself for going off. "Davidson went off in front of me and after avoiding the incident, I put the right-rear wheel on the kerb as I was braking for the corner. It was simply my mistake."

Davidson spun out 19 laps from the end of the race, but he still made a strong impression.

"I'm not going to hold that against him," said team boss Paul Stoddart. "He did a great job for three-quarters of the race and his lap times were very impressive."

That was something of an understatement. Although Davidson lost ground initially to team mate Mark Webber, the team told him to go for it in the final stint of the race, which he did to good effect until he let the back end step a little too far out of line and ended up in the gravel.

In fact, he set the 14th fastest lap of the race, two tenths quicker than Webber and faster than either Toyota, Pedro de la Rosa's Jaguar and Jenson Button's Renault, which in fairness, only completed 30 laps.

Still, the 23-year-old was not satisfied. Looking back on the weekend, he said: "It was okay but it could have been better. The hardest thing was letting the lapping cars past, which was far more difficult than I imagined."