Firman happy to take first F1 finish

The Briton rose through the field running a one-stop strategy, and looked set to finish ninth until losing a place on the last lap after he was forced to slow when his car was not completely refuelled during his single stop.

Firman was still happy with his result, which marked his first full F1 race after an early crash in Australia. "It was a good race with the car showing reliability," said Firman. "It was very, very hard work but I had some good battles and it's great to finish. In the pit stop the car wouldn't pull away with the normal system, I don't know why, but we did a manual start and that was okay, but I lost a bit of time and it is a shame I ran out of fuel on the last lap."

Team boss Eddie Jordan was impressed with Firman's performance. He said: "This is just what Ralph needed as it's all about confidence at this stage. It will make him feel better and more confident in himself, and so he should because he'll never get a more hostile environment in his racing career than a Grand Prix in this heat. We made it more arduous by asking him to do a one-stop strategy and he came through it. He did it like a man with a lot of spirit and speed."