Montoya: I Should have Won

The McLaren driver, however, believed he should have won.

"It was a bit frustrating because based on qualifying pace and fuel, I should have won the race," said Montoya, winner of the British Grand Prix two weeks ago. "I apologised yesterday but at least today I bought it back to the podium."

Montoya redeemed his qualifying mistake by taking second place with a storming drive from the back of the grid, finishing over 20 seconds behind race winner Fernando Alonso.

The Colombian driver completed an impressive first two laps, moving from 20th to 10th before his progress was stopped by traffic.

But his race strategy allowed him to run in clean air and he emerged in second place after making his final pitstop.

"The first few laps were a bit crazy," Montoya said. "I saved a bit of fuel running behind traffic and when I had a clear traffic I pushed. When I caught Michael [Schumacher] and Jenson [Button] it was the same, save fuel there.

"I was a bit worried when Jenson passed Michael, because my car was good but not so good in traffic."