Kanaan Unrepentant Over Briscoe Incident

The race came out of the final caution period on lap 91 with Briscoe leading Kanaan, who was aggressively looking for a way past the young Australian. After a robust defense of the position for a number of corners Kanaan ran up the inside of Briscoe at the back of the circuit, causing a collision which put Briscoe into the tyre wall.

"If he [Briscoe] has a problem, he can come talk to me," Kanaan advised in the post race group interview, "because, in my point of view, when you are ahead of the car that you are passing, you're ahead. I was ahead of him, and he turned, first.

"Second of all, three corners before that he put me in the wall. So basically if I was smart enough, I should have to wait because I think they were going to black flag him anyway. But when you're young and stupid, you do things likes that.

"I guess he's going to get old and wise."

The move meant that Kanaan was slowed going through the corner, which left a gap for the following Wheldon, who took the advantage handed to him. Kanaan threw everything he had at his teammate over the following nine laps, but it wasn't enough.

"Well, we got together," Kanaan noted, "and obviously we kept banging wheels for like three, four seconds. Dan was back there, and he took advantage of me. I saw Dan coming, and I didn't block him - I could have just moved over and he was going to have to lift, but I don't think it's the right thing to do.

"Even though I think I deserve to win the race with the things I done, I haven't. It's not because of that I'm going to make a stupid move and close the door on my teammate and we are going to have a big mess.

"I played fair and I lost the race. But the team won, and I'm happy about that. It's the first one-two-three-four, and it couldn't be in a better place."

One man who disputed the fairness of the Brazilian's drive is Ryan Briscoe.

"He certainly dive-bombed me," Briscoe told Speed TV after the race. "He knew there was going to be contact - it was a very aggressive move. It's unfortunate that he got impatient. I know he dive-bombed a few others - he must think that's normal."

Briscoe didn't deny his robust defence earlier in the lap, but felt Kanaan was still in the wrong: "I'm not just going to let him past, but that doesn't mean he can just drive into me - I don't know what he's getting back at.

"I think maybe he's just frustrated because he's champion and I'm a rookie - maybe that's his problem. At Phoenix, he turned into me on the back straight and caused me to come in and change a wing.

"He's very aggressive, he doesn't mind touching wheels, and you've just got to watch out."