Early heartache for McNish
Allan McNish suffered terrible luck in his first grand prix when he was forced to retire just seconds after the start at the Albert Park circuit's first corner
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."
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