Fisichella's timely reminder

The Italian scored the team's best finish of the year so far after opting for a two-stop strategy that allowed him to run in the points for most of the race.

"My car was very good all the way through," said Fisichella, and when we were running together I was much quicker than Montoya. I don't know whether he had a problem, but I could keep ahead of him quite easily.

"The only problem I had was in lapped traffic, when I lost some time. Without that maybe we could even have had the sixth place. But I am happy. We made progress at Imola and we made some more here. If we keep doing that we will just get stronger still."

Team-mate Felipe Massa was not as competitive but did manage to finish ahead of both McLarens in ninth place. "I flat-spotted my front tyres in Turn 10 in the first stint, trying to pass somebody, and that gave me a lot of vibration and understeer," explained the Brazilian. "I could see Giancarlo, but he was going away from me. I changed the front wings slightly in my first stop, and on fresh rubber the car was fine for the rest of the race.

"It felt great to beat the McLarens and without that initial problem I really think I could have been in the points." I'm very pleased for Giancarlo and the team that he scored some."

Peter Sauber was overjoyed at the team's apparent step forward in race pace: "Two points is fantastic for us, particularly as it is so hard to do that and we won them fair and square. At least as valuable to us was our race performance. We had a super strategy and very strong performances from both drivers.

"Giancarlo drove just the way I had in mind when we signed him for 2004, while Felipe overtook both McLarens. Our lap times were also absolutely competitive, which is further endorsement of the progress we are making."