Kubica laments first-lap incident

The Renault driver was hit by Force India's Adrian Sutil after the German was caught out by a big puff of smoke coming from Mark Webber's Red Bull.

Both Sutil and Kubica spun at Turn 2 and rejoined the race at the back of the field.

From there, Kubica fought his way though the field but missed out on a points finish after coming home in 11th.

"All our hard work this weekend was undone by the incident on the first lap," said Kubica. "During the lap to the grid, we had high engine oil levels and we took some out on the grid, but it seemed like Webber had the same problem after turn one: his engine just sucked the oil in and there was a massive amount of smoke in front of me.

"I think Sutil just didn't lift off because he couldn't see anything and he hit me. I spun during the incident and that cooked the rear tyres: they were overheating from that point onwards and I eventually stopped very early on lap 12.

"I completed the rest of the race on hard tyres, and that was a big challenge: I just set myself the goal of finishing in the points, but we didn't quite make it. Without the incident on lap one, I think we would have had a very strong points finish because we showed the pace to fight well.

"Overall, it was a positive weekend for us, though: we were well prepared after the winter; the team did a fantastic job at the track and back in Enstone to get the cars ready with the new package, and we didn't have any issues with the engine or the brakes. Now, we need to keep working and keep pushing.

Vitaly Petrov completed a disappointing day for Renault after retiring from the race with a broken suspension.

"I made a fantastic start and was running well in P11 at the end of the first lap," said Petrov. "The car felt good, and my pace was better than Barrichello in front of me. Then I ran wide over a kerb in turn 12 and it seemed to damage the right-front suspension at that point.

"I came into the pits to have the car checked over, and that was when we realised that the suspension couldn't be repaired so I had to retire.

"It was an extremely disappointing end after such a great start, but I'm pleased with how things went up to that point, and I want to thank all my mechanics and the whole team for the car they gave me this weekend. They did a fantastic job."