De la Rosa unhappy with Webber

De la Rosa and Webber were involved in a long battle for eighth place, with the Spaniard running faster but the Australian closing all the gaps.

De la Rosa eventually moved ahead of Webber during the first round of pitstops, and he went on to finish in seventh place.

"My race pace was very good, but I was distracted at the start," he told Spanish network Telecinco after the race. "I didn't think Webber would try to pass me and I was looking at Fisichella and Kimi to try to find a way past and he passed me.

"Then he was holding me, from my point of view, a bit against the rules, a bit too harshly. But that's racing, and we jumped him during the pitstops. The team did a great job there. And once I was in clean air I was able to push hard."

De la Rosa, standing in for Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, was returning to racing for the first time since last year's Bahrain Grand Prix, where he finished in fifth.

The Spaniard, a regular test driver for McLaren, was happy with his race performance, but reckons he will need to qualify higher to get better results.

"I drove very well. I'm happy, the car worked very well, but we need to qualify further in front to avoid traffic, because our race pace is very good and I never throw in the towel before the end," he added.

"We have a few races left, and the pace is there, and that's the important thing."