Disappointed Firman Baffled by Accident

Briton Ralph Firman claimed he was unsure as to why he spun out of the Australian Grand Prix, his first Formula One race.

Rookie Firman's yellow Jordan skidded off heavily into the wall at the same point where Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello had crashed a lap earlier, the Briton's accident bringing out the safety car for the first of two appearances in the race.

"I was not pushing one hundred percent when the accident happened," said Firman. "I was well within myself but then suddenly had major oversteer, lost the car and hit the barrier. Rubens (Barrichello) went off there and I understand there was a possibility of some oil on the track but I honestly don't know.

"It was going well before then, I was cautious over the first few laps and this is an unfortunate outcome. The team did a very good job to make the right call on tyre choice, so it's naturally very disappointing not to finish."

The Jordan team endured a poor first Grand Prix of the year, with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella also retiring from the race after he was hit by a gearbox problem six laps from the end.

"Lots of things happened in the race," said Fisichella. "First of all I lost three or four positions at Turn Six on lap one when I lost the car a little under braking. Then when Ralph had his accident bits of debris hit my car smashing off the wing mirror and damaging my rear wing.

"After that I was running at a good pace but we had the problem on the pit stop with the fuel cover and then at the end of the race the car had some gear problem."