Montoya admits driver error

Juan Pablo Montoya put his hands up in the post race press conference and admitted driver error, when he spun off in the closing stages of the Australian GP. The hard-charging Colombian rejoined in second place, 1.1s ahead of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, but lost his lead to David Coulthard in the incident on lap 48

At first it looked as if the traction control system on the Williams had failed to kick in, as it went into a graceful pirouette on the way to Turn Two. "I had the lead after my second pit stop," said Montoya, "then, as I went into Turn One and picked up the throttle, the car just turned on me. My fault."

The Colombian did not think the spin was the result of a decision not to change his tyres in the second pit stop. "On new tyres the balance was a disaster so I decided not to change tyres again. I still think it was the right thing to do. Basically, shit happens."

It was the last of a series of setbacks that Montoya had already endured. Things started to go against him early on when he was robbed, twice, of a leading margin by the appearance of the safety car.

"I think it was truly a disaster of a race. We took the right tyres, I had a 16 second lead and everything was going my way, and then the safety car came out. Then we went again and I had another good lead and the safety car came again, so I pretty much got screwed twice."