Coulthard ready to build on Melbourne success

Success suits David Coulthard. Leadership of the world championship, conferred upon him by a stylish victory in Australia 12 days ago, has left him relaxed but as sharp as ever.

Michael Schumacher dismissed his victory as luck, but Coulthard merely smiles and retorts calmly: "Well, I can hold my head a bit higher than he can with some of the victories he's had, when a team-mate has had to pull over and give him the win, and he's had to stand there spraying the champagne.

"I don't have to feel embarrassed by that. It's an inevitable thing for Michael to say, really, just as it's inevitable that this is my response!"

The 31-year-old Scot admits that he would rather win from the front. "Melbourne wasn't a pure victory. Unfortunately I have very high standards. In my 21st grand prix [Portugal in 1995] I had pole position, fastest lap and I won. And that set the standard for the rest of my career. If that's what you aspire to, then to take anything less than pole position, fastest lap and the win isn't the same, is it?

"From a pure personal satisfaction position, it doesn't really matter if someone says well done, good job. You know yourself how you feel. So I don't feel as good about that victory as many others, and I was disappointed with my performance during the course of the weekend. Not just with myself; I didn't feel that the car was talking to me. I'm driving the thing, but there are variations in cars and I didn't feel comfortable with that one all weekend. But I kept it on the island, I didn't make mistakes, the safety car worked for us and I won the race.

"The others still finished, but they dropped the ball at various points. Ten points is 10 points... It was definitely good for Formula One to have something different. A bit of a godsend for all."

He acknowledges that the Australian Grand Prix was an unusual race and says that McLaren-Mercedes are not getting carried away with their 1-3 result.

"In qualifying the Ferraris were pretty impressive and we don't know exactly how far they could have gone on their fuel level because the safety car came out, but we estimate they could have gone almost as far as we did but maybe would have stopped slightly earlier.

"They've had an incredible reliability record which Michael has been able to build on, but he did have a couple of excursions, as did some other drivers, and as we have seen in the past he does make mistakes under pressure. We just need to make sure we are in a position to put him under some."

Sepang has been good to Coulthard in the past, and he is aiming high again this weekend. "Obviously a win would be nice, aim for the top. But a podium would be a good result. To get podiums early in the season is invaluable, because it builds confidence in the team and gives everyone a little boost. You can ask more of the people in the factory, who with the best will in the world aren't in the front line. Everyone who supports McLaren gets a little leg-up."

Coulthard is banking on the law of averages to work against Ferrari. "They can't keep finishing grands prix all the time. I think they still have the pace to be the fastest guys in qualifying, and therefore in the race. I think you'd be a brave man going into the weekend betting against Ferraris setting the pace. But I think my chances of retaining the points lead are reasonable."