DC surprised by racing instinct

A bearded David Coulthard proved that his bristles do mean more bullish aggression on Sunday, when he secured fourth place in the Australian Grand Prix with a smart and gutsy drive on his debut with the Red Bull Racing team.

And he admitted that he had allowed his racing instincts to overcome his caution on the opening lap of what proved to be a memorable and incident-laden race for the experienced Scot.

"That first corner?"he said, referring to his leap from fifth on the grid to third place ahead of Australian Mark Webber in a Williams BMW. "Well, a racing instinct is something you either have or you don't.

"What surprised me was that I intended to be cautious but your racing instincts take over and when you see a gap you go for it. Afterwards, I thought it was a bit more risky than I was intending. It just shows you have either got that or you haven't.

"If you look at our race pace, we were quicker than Williams, and McLaren had some problems as well. We raced to get those points. Winter testing we had some good runs, but I kept thinking maybe others are just being conservative with what they are doing with fuel or what have you.

"I knew the car felt an improvement on the Jaguar. I think Cosworth have done a good job. Power-wise, I don't expect we are the best, but we are certainly not embarrassing ourselves with horsepower. The car and engine are reliable.”

Asked about the incident later in the race in which he almost hit Patrick Friesacher, in his Minardi, and Mark Webber, Coulthard added: "That corner is normally flat out and it's narrow as well. For him to lift there I didn't expect it. I braked and thought I'd hit him but I hadn't really hit him so I came off the brakes and then thought I better brake again.

"I was surprised by that whole scenario and then I nearly ran Mark off the circuit, which was not intentional. I was just so uncertain where I was on the track. It broke a winglet off the car, which helped reduce the front downforce which was good because it was oversteering.

"I've apologised because [Mark] had every right to be bloody annoyoed because effectively I put him on the grass."