The season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix saw Robert Kubica finish in 11th position for his new Renault team after falling victim to a racing incident on the first lap, when he touched another car and spun, ending up at the back of the field.

After that he drove a fantastic race to climb back through the field but despite his strong performance, it was extremely frustrating to finish so close to the point. However, at the same time, he is encouraged by the speed he demonstrated to get there.

“All our hard work this weekend was undone by the incident on the first lap. During the lap to the grid, we had high engine oil levels and we took some out on the grid, but it seemed like Webber had the same problem after turn one: his engine just sucked the oil in and there was a massive amount of smoke in front of me. I think Sutil just didn’t lift off because he couldn’t see anything and he hit me.” He explained.

“I spun during the incident and that cooked the rear tyres: they were overheating from that point onwards and I eventually stopped very early on lap 12. I completed the rest of the race on hard tyres, and that was a big challenge: I just set myself the goal of finishing in the points, but we didn’t quite make it. Without the incident on lap one, I think we would have had a very strong points finish because we showed the pace to fight well.”

“Overall, it was a positive weekend for us, though: we were well prepared after the winter; the team did a fantastic job at the track and back in Enstone to get the cars ready with the new package, and we didn’t have any issues with the engine or the brakes. Now, we need to keep working and keep pushing.

Meanwhile rookie teammate Vitaly Petrov retired in the early stages of the race after he too displayed a strong start. But, unfortunately the young Russian driver experienced a problem with the front suspension that the team are currently investigating, forcing him to pit and subsequently retire.

On a positive side, the car looked competitive in race trim and he too had the pace to achieve a much stronger finish today so he is confident that with the upgrades  they have planned at the coming races, his performance will only improve.

“I made a fantastic start and was running well in P11 at the end of the first lap. The car felt good, and my pace was better than Barrichello in front of me. Then I ran wide over a kerb in turn 12 and it seemed to damage the right-front suspension at that point,” he said.

“ I came into the pits to have the car checked over, and that was when we realised that the suspension couldn’t be repaired so I had to retire. It was an extremely disappointing end after such a great start, but I’m pleased with how things went up to that point, and I want to thank all my mechanics and the whole team for the car they gave me this weekend. They did a fantastic job.”