Davidson: Shame about the beaver!

While team-mate Takuma Sato added to Super Aguri's Formula One account for 2007, Anthony Davidson was left to count an unfortunate encounter with the local wildlife that scuppered his own scoring chances.

The Briton was running in - and maintaining - third position as the various pit strategies cycled through in the final third of the race, when he collided with a beaver, his front wing and forcing an unplanned pit-stop as the SA07 skated into the pit-lane entrance. Although Davidson continued to drive a strong race, he was only able to recover to eleventh position, and was left to ponder the one that got away.

"It is such a shame about the beaver - it had it in for me, for sure!" he tried to joke, "I was running in third place at the time, behind the safety car, and was on a clear, one-stop strategy.

"I couldn't even see it at high speed and I could not understand why, suddenly, I locked up the front tyres and had to come in to the pit-lane. The guys were taken by surprise in the garage when I came in, but they were really on it with the race strategy after that, telling me to overtake the safety car to get my lap back.

"The race was complete carnage from the word go and I'm just happy to have made it to the end. I equalled my best result and it is great news for the team who did a great job today."

Davidson also tried to take a little credit for team-mate Sato's sixth place run, which saw the Japanese ace scythe past both Ralf Schumacher and Fernando Alonso in the closing stages.

"I was out there on the option tyre, realised there was lots of graining and reported it to the team," he claimed, "I came in under the safety car to change the tyres and, before Taku had even done any fast laps, they knew to change the tyres back to the prime and that paid off. It was really good team work so I am extremely happy."