Montoya Welcomes Unexpected Second Place

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya welcomed an unexpected second place at Sunday's German Grand Prix, where the Williams driver managed to increase his lead over his pursuers in the race for the runner-up spot in the Championship.

Montoya, who for the first time in six races failed to start from pole position, benefitted from the problems of his teammate Ralf Schumacher and Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello to finish behind race winner Michael Schumacher and move fours points clear in the standings.

"Of course I didn't expect to come second, it happened thanks to the misfortune of Rubens and Ralf, but this is racing and such things happen," he said. "This is my best result in seven races in spite of the fact that I was on pole for five races."

Montoya was embroiled in one of the most exciting battles of the race, fighting wheel to wheel against McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen before the Finn finally had to concede.

"The fight with Raikkonen was very entertaining," Montoya said. "After he passed me at the start I had a few chances to overtake him, but it was too risky and I preferred waiting. Then the team told me I could make it and pumped my revs up, which gave me some additional power. I had good acceleration and Raikkonen did as well but then he made a mistake and I got past."

Montoya's teammate Ralf Schumacher looked set to finish in second place when he was forced to come into the pits to rectify an engine problem near the end of the race, dropping behind the Colombian.

The German, who had started the race from the front row behind his brother Michael, went on to finish third.

"If I look at all the problems I had today I should be happy to have finished third," he said. "A couple of things went wrong today. First Trulli held me up then I was slowed down by Villeneuve when I was approaching the pits and finally I had an additional stop to top up the pressurised air for the pneumatic valve drive of the engine."