Kobayashi happy to be back in the points after 10th-place finish in Abu Dhabi

The Japanese driver had not been in the points since the German Grand Prix in July.

"I am happy to have scored a point today," he said, "I have had a pretty long period without scoring and for me it was important to put an end to this.

"I had a really good start and was able to make up five positions on lap one. Actually the performance of the tyres during and after the start was better than expected.

"I started on the medium compound as I was only 16th on the grid, and this is obviously a situation in which you have to take chances. But we knew it would be a difficult first stint, and it was not really clear how long those tyres would last.

"They dropped off after a few laps and then I lost three positions before I pitted after lap five for soft tyres. I think overall it was a good race by us."

Team-mate Sergio Perez finished in 11th position after having to change his strategy due to a damaged front wing on the opening lap of the race.

The Mexican rookie admitted he was hoping for more.

"I had higher hopes for the race today," he said. "It is a shame what happened on lap one. There was a queue into turn seven and I couldn't avoid hitting Adrian Sutil's car. It wasn't immediately clear how big the damage was, but then the team told me my front wing was broken and I had to pit after lap two.

"We then decided to go for the medium compound when we did the nose change. On my third stint, again on soft tyres, I was driving in tenth for a while, but then I struggled with the tyres and also for the last 12 laps my KERS wasn't working."