Alonso Critical of Race Marshals

Alonso had shadowed Montoya during the first stint of the race and, after opting for a longer second stint, had needed to make up valuable time before his second stop in a bid to leapfrog his McLaren rival.

His hopes were dashed, however, when he lost vital seconds in traffic, especially following Toyota's Jarno Trulli, who baulked him for almost half a lap.

But rather than blame Trulli for the mix-up, Alonso hit out at the failure of marshals to show blue flags, which indicate to backmarkers that they must get out of the way to allow faster cars through.

"It was very, very close between Juan Pablo and me," said Alonso, who still crucially managed to finish ahead of title rival Kimi Raikkonen. "At the first pitstop we put a lot of fuel on board to go long in the stint and even with that we nearly managed to overtake him.

"So with a normal strategy I could have got past him, but anyway the strategy was good. I kept a three second gap and then the four or five laps longer (he could run at the end of the stint) should have helped me, but unfortunately I had some traffic.

"The blue flags did not work at all there, so I lost three seconds with Jarno. Obviously it was not his fault because there were no blue flags, so probably he didn't know that I was fighting for the win at that point."

Despite his disappointment, Alonso admitted that second place was still a good result for the team - especially as they had come into the weekend expecting to face a comprehensive drubbing from McLaren.

"I tried after the second stop to push Juan Pablo a little bit, but I think it was a bit difficult to overtake," added Alonso. "The pace of Juan Pablo and I was similar and in the last laps Kimi was quite far away so I was just relaxed.

"I am happy to keep second which is a dream come true here at Silverstone."