Nakajima had a similarly disappointing race after being demoted to the back of the grid for his Melbourne coming-together with
Robert Kubica, the Japanese rookie ultimately proving unable to capitalise on a barnstorming getaway in which he made up seven places.
“From the back of the grid, we decided upon quite an aggressive strategy and I made up quite a few places from the start, but it was difficult to open up a comfortable gap,” explained the 23-year-old.
“In the second stint, I had a puncture and had to stop very early, which was not ideal as I had to run two short stints and a long final one.
“I was struggling a little in the last stint and in a high-speed corner I spun off, so after that I just wanted to concentrate on making it home to get two races on the engine.”
Williams went into the weekend hoping to consolidate second position in the constructors' championship, but due to its no-score the squad left down in fourth, 15 points adrift of leaders
McLaren.
