Kubica: Qualifying was key for podium

The Pole, who had not been on the podium since he won the Canadian Grand Prix, put on his and his BMW Sauber team's strongest performance in recent races to finish behind Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton.

Kubica came close to taking second place away from Hamilton at the start of the race, but the Pole admitted it would have been too risky to try the pass.

"We did start pretty well but in corner one I was over the kerb and Lewis was close as we approached the second corner, where honestly I was going for it," said Kubica.

"But I saw Felipe braking early and it was too much risk. If I overshot the corner I'd have crashed into him so I choose to stay where I was."

He added: "We finished well away from two other cars, but the key to this result was qualifying - just three tenths off pole is remarkable. It is our real pace. We are a bit far away but we still try to do our best."

The BMW driver suffered a scare around lap 12, when a plastic bag got stuck underneath his car, changing the handling completely.

"I saw a plastic bag flying and I couldn't avoid it," he said. "It went under car and suddenly I couldn't steer anymore for two corners. It was extremely dangerous and I never had it before.

"Fortunately when I approached the high speed corner it flew away but my confidence had gone away.

"I lost about three seconds. We took it away at the pitstop. We didn't know when Kovy was stopping so I needed to pull away."