Nick Heidfeld says crash with Sebastien Buemi was unavoidable

The Renault driver, who had just received a drive-through penalty for punting Paul di Resta into a spin on the opening lap, had been trying to recover from that incident when he attempted to pass Buemi's Toro Rosso.

Heidfeld, on the outside into the braking zone was closed down by the Swiss driver and the two cars collided, sending the Renault sideways across the grass and briefly airborne.

"My start wasn't too good," Heidfeld told the BBC. "I lost some positions there when I collided with Paul [di Resta]. After that I tried hard to make up some positions. I overtook a couple of cars and came up behind Buemi. He was blocking me which was fully okay on the left side, on the long straight before the chicane.

"But then I was next to him on the right and he just moved over, and there was nowhere to go. So he pushed me on to the grass and there was an accident, that couldn't be avoided with what he did."

Heidfeld admitted that the incident with di Resta, which sent the Scot to the back of the field, was his fault entirely.

"I was a bit sandwiched in the second corner, then on the third corner Paul was on the outside and a bit in front of me. I locked up the front wheels, I tried to avoid him, but just slid into him."