Sato blames electronic glitch for hold-ups

Renault boss Flavio Briatore hit out at the behaviour of backmarkers at Albert Park, claiming that they had not been co-operative when faster cars came up to lap them.

"These people ignore blue flags, any flag," Briatore told reporters. "You need the rifle to get these guys moving.

"I hope the federation is doing something because it's impossible to keep people behind for three or four laps like that."

But Sato told autosport.com that his car had been hit by an electronic problem that meant the FIA warning lights in the cockpit, which flash blue to warn a quicker car is approaching, were not working.

"You could say the flags were shown quite late," said Sato. "And we had a technical problem so we didn't have the FIA official light. I had to be really reliant on what the marshals did.

"You could argue about us, but I don't think we affected them (the leaders) much."