Heidfeld delighted after podium finish

"This was a superb race for me," said Heidfeld, who had also finished on the podium in last year's race.

"I was on the podium for the second time this year, and podiums were on our 'to do' list for this season.

"I had a bad start on the dirty side of the track and lost a place to Kimi Raikkonen, but anyway both Lewis Hamilton and he have clearly been faster today, so a better start would not have changed much.

"I had some difficulties with the second and third sets of tyres and it was not easy to race against a 'ghost'.

"Of course I knew I was racing Fernando Alonso but, due to the different strategies, he wasn't visible to me. We decided early this weekend to go for a three stop strategy because the softer tyres caused trouble.

"I only used them in the last stint when my car was relatively light and the track had a lot of rubber. Fernando was faster than me almost everywhere and put me under pressure, but he didn't have a proper chance to overtake as this is very difficult here."

The result consolidated Heidfeld in fifth place in the drivers' standings, having scored 42 points so far.

The BMW Sauber team completed their strongest race of the season thanks to Robert Kubica's fifth place.

"I am happy with the pace," said Kubica. "Today the car worked well, and my race was pretty good. I had to start with used tyres, therefore, the first laps were very difficult for me.

"However, after the first stop the pace was really good and then I closed the gap to Nick to three seconds. Without yesterday's problems we could have finished a lot better. Nick had a good result and this is good for the team."