Montoya welcomes return to podium

The Colombian had started the race from seventh position following a discreet qualifying, but a clever pitstop strategy from his team allowed him to climb up to third.

The podium was Montoya's first since last year's Brazilian Grand Prix in September.

"I think it was a good race," said Montoya. "We had a really quick start and I went inside of Fernando and he tried to pass Barrichello and had to lift off and I lost some places.

"On and off it was a very good race. We did a lot of work in the last few weeks and we are going in the right direction.

"We had a lot of fuel in the car, we passed a lot of people and we had a really good car, but when I got to third I was 13 seconds behind and it was too far. It was more bringing the car home."

Although Montoya came under pressure from Ferrari's Felipe Massa in the final part of the race, the Colombian said he had everything under control.

"I was pretty much cruising to be honest," he said.

Montoya's teammate Kimi Raikkonen finished in fifth place.