McLaren plans ahead

While Coulthard managed to bring his car home sixth, some way off the pace of the leaders, Raikkonen had fought a strategic battle with BAR's Jenson Button that could have netted the Finn a podium finish had he not suffered a problem in his second pitstop and then a transmission failure. Nevertheless the team was encouraged by the ground it has made up since its poor start in Australia.

"Despite Kimi's retirement and David's difficult race, we have increased the competitiveness of the car and the team as a whole since Melbourne," said team boss Ron Dennis. "Our intensive test and development programme will continue in the run up to Bahrain which will hopefully once again be positively reflected in our performance."

Raikkonen was disappointed to have posted his second retirement in as many races: "It's never nice not to finish a race, not only for me but also for the team. However, whilst we need to become even more competitive at least we have taken a step in the right direction, and I know everybody will continue their efforts to improve even further.

"We were close to getting on the podium today, but in my second pitstop we struggled to get the fuel nozzle to come off, so we lost important time to BAR and Jenson could take third. A few laps later something broke in my transmission, and that was the end of that. I'm now hoping that we can take another step in time for the next race in Bahrain."

Coulthard was philosophiocal. Sixth place is not where the Scot had been expecting to finish before the season started but at least he had some fun in the race. "We can take some satisfaction from the fact that we have improved our package since Melbourne, but we still have some way to go," he said. "I made a good start, gained a few places and got involved in some quite exciting battles.

"I found it difficult to hold the car in the fast corners and at one point had a bit of a moment where I very nearly lost it but managed to stay on track, however I lost a few seconds in the process. Sixth place is not brilliant, but at least we have improved and I know that everybody in the entire team will continue to work hard until we are where we want to be which is at the front."