Davies thrilled with Monaco podium

"I certainly could have been closer," he said, " especially as both of them - Junqueira and Saelens [who were first and third] - collapsed on the podium! You wouldn't think that, of the three of us, it was me who'd only done his second race this year!"

The second placed man described how the stars of the series had virtually passed out from exhaustion after the gruelling 50-lap race.

"Junqueira was on his back with his legs in the air," said Davies. "There was a bunch of doctors around him slapping him round the face!" he revealed.

The 26-year-old who hails from Somerset was part of the leading pair for the entire race, after the front row men collided. Junqueira and Davies pulled away from the pack and initially Davies was able to stick with the Brazilian.

However, as the race progressed, Junqueira began to pull away. The Englishman fell victim to the circuit's punishing nature as drivers started to crash, and the yellow flags came out. "There was not much between us, in terms of pace," Davies suggested, but I was backing off more for the yellow flags.

"I was probably backing off a bit too much, but I didn't want any way to lose a good solid result," said Davies, who was only on his second appearance for the team, and has no firm race deal for the rest of the season. "I was backing off around 0.7 of a second, whereas he was only slowing by about 0.1 of a second," Davies confirmed. A driver may be penalised if judged to have passed waved yellows without slowing.

"I'm pleased for the team, though, because it's their first points of this year and the best result they've had in F3000," he added.

Team boss Richard Dutton praised Davies performance, saying "Jamie did a fantastic job for the team this weekend. He started with a fabulous qualifying position of fourth on Friday, and then went on to take a well-deserved podium finish.

"Jamie had a truly remarkable drive, keeping pressure on championship leader Bruno Junqueira for the whole race," he added.

Mario Haberfeld, who Davies has replaced for two races due to injury, will test with the team at the A1 Ring in two weeks to assess his fitness.