Montoya still aiming for second

"We still have hopes for second place in the drivers' champinship, " he said. "The moment Rubens fails, we have to be there. "

Montoya admitted that he was not expecting to be able to match Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren, which had shown impressive speed in practice.

"I am a bit surprised I could keep up with Kimi Raikkonen who had a very fast pace in the first part of the race, " said Montoya. "I did not expect such a good result today.

"When I pitted for the first time I managed to stay ahead of Kimi thanks to the great job of my team. We also made some adjustments during the pit-stop which helped a lot and in the last part of the race I managed to keep David Coulthard behind me."

Team-mate Ralf Schumacher was disappointed with his fifth place after a troubled race which saw him spin off the track.

"I can only be reasonably satisfied today as I made a few mistakes, " said Schumacher. "At the start I was blocked by a slow-starting Kimi Raikkonen, then I spun and went into the gravel trap and finally when I restarted after my second stop I pushed the wrong button on the steering wheel by mistake. "