Robert Kubica has revealed there was brief “panic” on the grid as his vision of the start lights was blocked to begin the Australian Grand Prix.
In what was always going to be a case of simply making it to the end in a Williams car that remains some way off the pace, the Pole’s first Formula 1 race in over eight years began in tricky circumstances.
“It was my first standing start in eight years and four months,” Kubica explained. “I never did a standing start on the grid since Abu Dhabi 2010, and actually it was quite good.
“I had a bit of panic because when I stopped I couldn’t see the lights, the rear wing of the McLaren was hiding it.
“I could see the first block and not the rest. So I had to move to the left and it was a bit of a panic moment.”
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That wouldn’t be all, however, as Kubica was then caught up in the melee at the back of the grid.
“I got a good launch but then I had a lot of wheelspin,” he continued.
“Running into Turn 1 I took it very safe, I moved a lot to the inside over the kerb, and I once I thought ‘OK, this is over’, I went through the first corner and then, from what I saw in car, Gasly moved quite a lot to the right.
“I thought there was contact with Sainz but I saw it on the video that he moved a lot to the right and he damaged my front wing, but I actually didn’t realise until 100 meters later I lost the whole wing.
“Then this wing caused other damage to the car so we had to pit.”
From that point on, already well behind the pack, it was simply managing the situations to the end.
“The car was not feeling great, then additionally three laps into the race I lost one of the mirrors, which makes it even more difficult with blue flags! So it was quite difficult,” Kubica noted.
“Once I was in clear air I was told the pace was not bad, actually it was good for the car with the state it was in, and I nearly started laughing because from the inside it felt very bad.”