Nakajima hails 'step forward' in pace

The Williams driver, competing in his first full season, had finished in the points in Australia and repeated the feat with a seventh place finish in Barcelona on Sunday.

"It was a good race and it was important to me to score points today," said Nakajima. "I made it off the line ok, but I was then caught behind Button so I lost position, which was disappointing.

"I'm happy with the end result though and this race is another step forward for me. There is, of course, room for improvement but five points in the first four races is a good start in my first year."

Nico Rosberg, who had struggled for pace in qualifying, was enjoying a stronger race until he was forced to retire with a mechanical failure when he looked set to finish in the points.

The team said they were still investigating the problem.

"In the end, this result is a combination of two things," Rosberg said. "We brought a new aero package to this race and we went the wrong way with it when it came to set-up in practice.

"We were able to change this for the race and went much more towards Kazuki's setting, which worked a lot better as I was able to push harder and I was much happier with that.

"It was going really well in the race. I had a good start, chose the right way to go off the line and went from 15th to 11th in the first lap so I knew we had a good chance to do well and overtake Jarno for sixth place.

"Even if I hadn't passed Jarno, I still would have finished seventh, which would have been good also, so the end result is a shame."