Rubens hails 'magic' recovery

Barrichello was hit from behind by Jaguar's Mark Webber at the first corner but, thanks to the safety car for an accident at Eau Rouge, was able to pit on two occasions without losing a lap. After that he was able to carve his way through the field to finish third.

"At the moment, it is hard for me to think straight, finishing third after what happened at the start," said Barrichello. "It is a magic feeling. The team were speaking to me as though we were chatting in a living room, telling me to keep calm and explaining what they were doing.

"If I was unlucky with the accident, I was lucky with the safety car. I was not sure what happened, but I felt the car weaving from side to side and it turned out I had a puncture and also a damaged wing and the team made the right decision to change the tyre and then to bring me in again for the wing.

"After the restarts I found it hard to follow other cars. The team did a superb job and I kept pushing hard all the time. My car was actually very good apart from the small problem with warming up the tyres."