Rubens defends race strategy

Although the Brazilian had enough pace to fight for the lead, he was caught in too much traffic after his first and second stops to make an impact on the fight for victory. Nevertheless his third place finish was his ninth podium of the season and he is the only driver to have scored points in every race this year.

"I had a good race but a tough one although I feel I had made the right choice of strategy at the time," he said. "After the start it was clear that Kimi [Raikkonen's] tyres had warmed up quicker and I found it really difficult to match his pace, then I caught him up and was able to pull away from [Jenson] Button.

"But after the first pit stop the car felt heavy and I struggled again. I also got stuck behind four or five cars fighting for position and that probably lost me second place and maybe the win.

"I have to say Michael did a superb job to win on two stops. When the Safety Car came out, the race was alive again, but again immediately after my last pit stop I could not push as hard as I wanted and I could not pass Kimi as although I was quicker in the first sector, he was faster in the third."

Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn admitted that the team had seriously considered Barrichello's strategy options prior to qualifying: "We had a long debate because Rubens was on a different strategy about how it would work out in the race, and both drivers agreed to race each other, but it didn't come to that.

"Unfortunately Rubens got a little bit messy in the middle of the field at one stage. We managed to get him past Jenson in the pit stops, but Kimi was very quick today and he couldn't respond to that. Rubens wanted a very aggressive strategy, he was up for a very aggressive strategy, but it just didn't quite work today."