Montoya Blames Early Lap

The Colombian's absence from Formula One for the last two races meant that he had to be the first man out on the track to set his time and, with the added handicap of not having run on new tyres previously, Montoya could manage no better than 12th.

"Yesterday I had an accident and this morning I had no new tyres or anything," he said. "But looking at what the car was doing on old tyres I thought it was quite promising - but I lost a lot of grip.

"Being the first car around here was a big penalty and it was really gusty too, so it is disappointing. The team told me, 'you will see, when you are the first car it is just going to be a disaster.' And it was.

"We had to pay the price for that, but it was better to go through that here than in Monaco. At least here we can race."

Despite his disappointment, though, Raikkonen's strong run to the third fastest time, after a wild moment across the dirt at Turn Two, proved that McLaren's improved MP4-20 should be a strong contender for victory.

"We have a very fast race car and we can actually race here," added Montoya. "Compared to Kimi I lost seven tenths in the last two corners, and he is 50km/h quicker than me, but this morning I was stronger than him through there.

"If the grip is not there it is not there and you cant do anything about it."