Montoya Accepts Blame for Costly Spin

Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya accepted full blame for the spin which cost him victory at the season opening Australian Grand Prix but admitted that fate was against him winning the race.

The Colombian led for lengthy periods of the race after correctly opting to start on dry weather tyres, but two safety car periods halted his progress and allowed the chasing pack to close on him.

Montoya finally looked destined to take the chequered flag when he was handed the lead following Kimi Raikkonen's drive-through penalty, but an uncharacteristic spin at turn one handed the lead to McLaren's David Coulthard and he was forced to accept second place.

"I think it was a pretty disastrous race," said Montoya, who held off McLaren's Raikkonen and Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher to finish second. "We took the right tyres and we had a 16-second lead. Everything going my way then safety car came out.

"Then we went again and, I don't know, I had like 10 or so seconds lead, and the safety car (came out) again, so I pretty much got screwed twice and even then after second stop I had the lead and, I don't know, I went into turn one and when I picked up the throttle the car just turned into me. My fault."

Montoya, who failed to win a race last year despite claiming a string of pole positions, said he had been confident of holding off Coulthard had he not spun and lost the lead.

He had chosen to remain on old tyres in his final pit-stop moments earlier, but denied a set of new tyres would have made any difference after he struggled when driving on new rubber after his first stop.

"With David I thought he was two-and-a-half seconds behind and he was a bit quicker than me but here it is nearly impossible to pass," he added. "So I thought as long as I kept a decent pace I should be alright but I went into turn one, picked up the throttle and just got sideways and that was it. There was nothing to it.

"The previous run on new tyres the balance was a disaster and on old tyres I had much better balance so I decided not to change and I still think it was the right thing to do. I would have been even less competitive if I had changed tyres. So it was just, you know, shit happens."