Coulthard: disappointed

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David Coulthard accepted his share of blame for the accident which removed both the Scot and Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap of the British Grand Prix.

Competing in his final race at Silverstone, Coulthard had hoped for a good showing in front of his home fans. However, with wet conditions causing a number of incidents on the opening lap, it was not to be.

With Coulthard trying to overtake the Toro Rosso on the inside line into Priory, Vettel turned in on him with both Red Bull-backed cars heading into the gravel and retirement.

"The visibility was incredibly bad as you can imagine," Coulthard explained.

"I was very close to Sebastian after Abbey, as he had a wobble coming out of there. There was a clear gap down the inside, but unfortunately it was closing as I made the move.

"I'm sorry for him that we made contact and went into the gravel, I'm sorry for Red Bull too, as it was two cars out in one hit.

"I'm extremely disappointed for this to happen at my last British Grand Prix."

Webber spins

The fortunes of team-mate Mark Webber had already taken a turn for the worse after the Australian driver, who achieved Red Bull's best ever qualifying performance by taking second on the grid, spun exiting Becketts.

Although he then made rapid inroads through the field, climbing to 12th place in the opening laps, Webber could, in the event, only manage 10th place at the chequered flag.

He admitted afterwards: "Unfortunately I dropped it on the entrance to Becketts corner on the first lap.

"I was quite close to Kimi Raikkonen into the corner and just got on the white line. I lost the car on the exit and had to let the field go past, so it was clear to spin back round.

"After that it was about making the right call for the right conditions. It was a difficult day to go car racing and it just didn't go our way today.

"The guys did a good job all week and it's a shame we couldn't convert our good qualifying performance."