Coulthard got lucky, says Montoya

McLaren driver Coulthard started the race on wet tyres, which he admitted was the wrong decision, but a bold strategy to pit on lap two got his race back on track, and he picked up the pieces as those ahead of him made unforced errors.

"It's frustrating but that's the way it is," said Montoya. "I mean, DC came in on lap two and normally any race that you do that you are out of business. But before the first Safety Car I was already 16 seconds ahead. I had a decent lead after the second one, then I go off with 10 laps to go."

Despite the fact that Ferrari still appeared to have the quickest car, even though Michael Schumacher had dislodged his barge board aerodynamic devices, Montoya isn't downbeat about his chances for the rest of the season.

Montoya added: "It's too early to say yet. I don't really have a clue what will happen. Generally speaking our car was good - in qualifying and in the race. If you look at the lap time we did in testing at Jerez and Valencia, the only place we've really struggled is Barcelona.

"The car still needs a lot of work, I'm not going to lie about that, but there's a lot of potential. I think some people thought perhaps I qualified on low fuel, but I didn't. The pace was there."