Ferrari will fight back warns Coulthard

Australian Grand Prix winner David Coulthard has warned that Ferrari will be fighting back hard at the next race in Malaysia. Despite McLaren's double podium finish, Coulthard's team mate Kimi Raikkonen third, the Scot thinks that the second race will see the Scuderia determined to make amends for Michael Schumacher's fourth place finish.

The podium: champagne for race winner David Coulthard.

Photo by Brousseau Photo.

"I'm extremely pleased to have started the season with a victory, but people who are writing off Ferrari are making a big, big mistake," Coulthard told The Herald. "They are going to come out for the next race more fired up than they have been for years and if you thought Sunday was action-packed, I have a feeling Malaysia will be even better."

The Scot started the Australian GP from 11th on the grid but a combination of others' errors, changeable conditions and two safety car periods saw him make the most of his chances.

"I know that I was in a position to take full advantage of the problems guys like Michael, Juan, Kimi and Rubens had during the race," Coulthard commented. "But the point is, I was there when it mattered -- leading at the end of the race when they weren't."

He admitted that the race wasn't very exciting for him until things changed in his favour: "It had really been pretty uninspiring until I took the lead," he said. "All I had been doing was going as fast as I could, staying out of trouble and hoping that things might happen ahead of me. As it turned out, that's exactly what happened."

Coulthard took one victory in 2002, at the Monaco GP, so this year he's already level with his last season's best result. McLaren is looking competitive but after one race it's far too soon to make any predictions.