Australian GP Burti on accident

Luciano Burti's first weekend as a fulltime Formula One driver did not get off to a great start when he crashed on Friday. And qualifying proved even more disappointing when the Brazilian had another, much bigger accident, possibly as the result of ...

Luciano Burti's first weekend as a fulltime Formula One driver did not get off to a great start when he crashed on Friday. And qualifying proved even more disappointing when the Brazilian had another, much bigger accident, possibly as the result of a mechanical problem. The unfortunate series of events means that Burti will start the race from 21st position tomorrow. Adam Cooper caught up with him after qualifying to ask him for his thoughts.

Q: It looked on the TV as though something failed. Do you know what happened?

"I wasn't even pushing because there was a yellow flag, and I was already coming into the pits because I'd lost too much time under the yellow flags. I went into the corner normally and I realised I was already crashing. There was no warning, so it's pretty clear that something wrong happened. I don't know what yet."

Q: It looked a bit dangerous, with wheels flying around.

"I didn't speak to Michael Schumacher yesterday, but maybe he had the same feeling as I do. Once you start crashing, the car is pretty safe, and I was already thinking about jumping out and getting the spare car. It looks a lot worse from the outside than the inside."

Q: Why didn't you go out in the spare?

"I guess two reasons. One it wasn't ready on time, and maybe for safety issues, Bobby preferred to not do it, which I can understand."

Q: The two days haven't really gone the way you wanted. Are you disappointed?

"Mainly, but not because of what happened in qualifying. Yesterday I made a mistake and crashed and lost a lot of track time, but this morning we lost most of the session with a few problems in the car. So then it starts to get frustrating. I knew in qualifying it would be impossible to get a good result, because if you lose track time here, in a place you never test, you never catch it back again."

Q: What can you do on Sunday?

"Just finish the race. Forget about being fast now, and anything like that, and just get a bit more experience for Malaysia, because this one is gone already."