Early heartache for McNish

The Toyota driver was unable to avoid getting caught up in the pile-up that followed Ralf Schumacher's collision with the back of Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari.

"That's motor racing," McNish shrugged. "I enjoyed the weekend. It feels a lot different coming into the F1 paddock with a job to do instead of coming into it looking for one! There had been a few nerves on Thursday morning but no real emotion. Until race morning when I was on the driver parade. I heard Scottish voices shouting support and saw all the people. It sunk in then and if I'm honest I had a tear in my eye as we went down the back straight.

"At the start I didn't see what triggered the accident but basically it was up at the front and had repercussions further back. There were people spinning in every direction. I saw Olivier Panis spin and I went across the grass to avoid everything, but as I came back on another car came in from the left and broke the front left suspension."

But the 32-year-old put a brave face on his first weekend as Formula 1 race driver. "We're happy with the performance of the team. They did a good job," he said. "It's just a shame it had to end this way."