Kubica frustrated but phlegmatic over DSQ.

Formula One debutant Robert Kubica has shrugged off his post-race exclusion from the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite having apparently secured two points in his first outing with the BMW Sauber team.

The Pole had thought he was safe to celebrate seventh place in one of the trickiest grands prix for years, having survived two spins - one requiring a nose change - to come home in seventh spot, ahead of both Ferraris. However, a post-race technical inspection found that his F1.06 was a couple of kilogrammes underweight, necessitating instant exclusion.

The team believes that the state of Kubica's tyres was to blame for the illegal reading, having opted not to replace his intermediate rubber at his final pit-stop and seeing the car return to parc ferme with barely any tread to speak of.

"The tyres on Robert's car were in use for 51 laps, and had sustained unexpectedly high rubber wear," technical director Willy Rampf admitted on the BMW Sauber website, "The FIA has made it clear that there is no question of any implied intention [to cheat]. There's no ambiguity about being underweight, we just have to accept it. "

Having initially claimed that he did not feel that the race had done justice to his ability, Kubica subsequently found solace in the fact that he had made it to the end of a race that claimed eight victims, and had a couple of retirees - ironically including Michael Schumacher, who benefited most from the Pole's DSQ - classified among the 14 finishers.

"The disqualification was very frustrating, but I am happy that I was able to show some good driving and I hope for a lot of another nice moments in Formula One," Kubica told his personal website.

"My first Formula One grand prix was a thrilling experience but, because of the unscheduled pit-stop [to change the nose], we had to change our strategy and, during the second stop, I had to stay on intermediate tyres as it was still too early to put dry weather tyres on. I finished the race on the intermediates and, on the drying track, they were performing worse and worse with every lap.

"I did over 50 laps on that set of tyres and, towards the end of the race, it became really tough. But I managed to finish the race in seventh place. I am happy that I could fight with more experienced opponents on the track and, in fact, beat some of them in straight fight."