Defeated Virgin vow to push on despite another failure to finish

The Yorkshire team revealed on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix weekend that their fuel tank did not have enough capacity to complete the average Grand Prix race distance.

But speaking yesterday after a dramatic race in the Melbourne rain, won by Britain's reigning world champion Jenson Button, Virgin's team principal John Booth suggested they would continue on to next weekend's race in Malaysia, and then on to China next month.

"We've faced a challenging set of circumstances and a difficult weekend," said Booth after Timo Glock completed 41 laps of the 58-lap race when a suspension failure intervened before the capacity of the fuel tank could be tested. "We got to almost half distance with Lucas and nearly three-quarters with Timo and with the problems we've had I am very proud of the way the team have coped.

"We can go into Malaysia with our heads held high and knowing that things will get better as we get more of the season under our belts."

The fuel tank design fiasco will not be remedied until the start of the European season at the earliest, when even the Spanish and Monaco grand prixs may come too soon for their new chassis to be ready.

The Turkish Grand Prix, round seven of the Formula 1 season, may be a more realistic target.

Until then the Dinnington-based team will have to take the taunts of their rivals on the chin, with Nick Wirth's controversial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) design technique showing fundamental difficiencies in the early stages.

Nevertheless, Glock and Di Grassi made more inroads into the race distance than they had in Bahrain, with the Australian Grand Prix proving more of a spectacle.

Both Virgin drivers were hampered by a fuel pick-up problem in qualifying, and ironically, they had more fuel in their cars than most of their rivals at the tail-end of the grid.

It meant they had to start the race from the pitlane, which helped them avoid the five-car pile-up on lap five.

Michael Schumacher finished 10th behind his younger and less-heralded Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, and in his battle to get back among the points, the seven-time champion traded places with Glock in a tussle that hinted there could be good times ahead for Virgin.

"I had a bit of fun fighting with Michael," said his compatriot Glock. "Had we not had the suspension issue I think we would have been looking good for our first chequered flag.

"We have to take the positives and see that in some ways we have made progress, albeit there is still a lot of work ahead."

There were no such problems at the front of the grid for Button, who fought his way up from fourth on the grid to take his first win in only his second race for his new team as Albert Park played host to a race filled with drama and overtaking.

The excitement was aided by a spell of rain shortly before the start which forced teams to quickly change to intermediate tyres.

Seconds after the five red lights went out, Alonso spun at the first turn after hitting Schumacher's Mercedes as Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel comfortably held onto first place.

A crash between BMW Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi and Williams' Nico Hulkenberg brought the safety car out and once it left at the end of lap five, Button was the first to enter the pits to switch to slicks.

It proved an inspirational decision as he charged into second place before Vettel suffered brake failure to bring an end to his race, leaving Button firmly in control as he breezed to victory in Melbourne for the second successive year.

The 30-year-old had felt that his car was not quite capable of challenging the pace of rivals Red Bull and Ferrari, but made the right tactical choice.

Button said: "I thought it would take longer than this. A lot depends on what sort of car you come out of the box with.

"I don't know in general pace where we would stand but that is not all racing is about. It is also about strategy, thinking and conserving.

"We did it correctly today and we came away with a good victory. This is very special and whatever happens over the next few races, this means a lot to me."

Button's McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished sixth. After qualifying 11th, being stopped by police and suffering reliability problems, it was a weekend to forget for the 2008 champion who blamed his team's tactics for the poor finish.

Robert Kubica finished second with his first podium for Renault while Felipe Massa was third for Ferrari.