Juan Pablo Montoya proved he is back with a bang in Formula One after winning a battle of wills with Fernando Alonso at the British Grand Prix. Montoya took the chequered flag for the first time with new team McLaren and for the fifth time in a career which has promised so much but often failed to deliver. When the Colombian joined the Woking-based team from Williams for this year, the belief was if the car delivered then he was talented enough to be a serious title challenger. However, a shoulder injury sustained playing tennis earlier this year ruled him out of both the Bahrain and San Marino Grands Prix, and since then Montoya has played second fiddle to team-mate and championship challenger Kimi Raikkonen. But the 29-year-old yesterday stepped out of the Finn's shadow, showing he has not lost any of his famed `bottle' that makes him such a feared and respected racer. Starting from third on the grid, Montoya was confident he had too much pace for front-row Briton Jenson Button at the start, and that victory would depend on whether he could also pass pole man Fernando Alonso. Once the five red lights went out to signal the start of the 60-lap race, Montoya did blast past BAR star Button before finding himself duelling alongside Alonso's Renault in the first few corners. Heading into Becketts, the two were neck and neck, before Alonso eventually opted to give way. "That was where the race was won," said Montoya. "I knew Fernando wasn't willing to risk too much, and I was willing to risk more, so I knew he would back off. He bailed out, not completely, but just enough for me to get him. "Going side by side into Becketts, one of us was going to back off or we would go off, and the chance was he would back off before me because he's fighting for the championship and I'm not. I just wanted to win the race." Montoya is understandably hoping this is the start of bigger things with McLaren, and while he might be 51 points behind championship leader Alonso, he knows he can still play his part. "I was going through a period where everything that could go wrong, was going wrong," added Montoya. "But we've been trying a lot of different things, and in the last few races there's been a lot of progress. "For me, this year is not over completely. Given the fight between Kimi and Fernando, they can take each other off in two races and I can close the gap. "But then while things have played out well for me here, we might go to the next race and struggle. "I want to make sure we get maximum points for the team, so we will see how things play out." Alonso felt he had the better race strategy and should have won but for Silverstone's marshals, who failed to blue flag back markers just prior to his second pit stop when he was looking to build a time cushion to ensure he came out ahead of Montoya. "The four or five laps I went longer in the second stint should have helped me win the race, but unfortunately there was traffic, with the blue flags not working at all this race," said Alonso. "I lost three seconds with Jarno [Trulli], which was not his fault because there were no blue flags, so he probably didn't know I was fighting for the victory at that time." But at a circuit where Alonso felt he would struggle with his Renault, he instead has opened up a further two-point gap to Raikkonen, with the margin now 26 points with eight rounds of the championship remaining. The Spaniard said: "I am extremely happy with this result, even though I didn't win, but from the point of view of the championship it's a good result. "To get second, which was impossible to think about a couple of weeks ago, and to take points off Kimi and Michael [Schumacher] is a dream come true. "If we can do this at Silverstone, then at Hockenheim and Hungary in the next two races we can fight for the victory." Raikkonen claimed a fine third after starting from 12th due to an oil-pump failure in practice on Saturday, forcing an engine change and subsequent 10-place demotion down the grid for the second successive race. But the 25-year-old knows his chances are running out as he said: "It's getting more difficult race by race, especially with all the problems I have had. "Without the problems we would have had better results in the last few races, but we will win as a team and lose as a team. "I'm just hoping people within the team will put in more hard work to make sure these things don't happen again, but there are no bad feelings." Alonso's Renault team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was fourth, with Button disappointingly fifth after promising so much in qualifying. Reigning world champion Michael Schumacher claimed sixth in his Ferrari, his lowest-placed finish at Silverstone since breaking his leg at the circuit in 1999, with team-mate Rubens Barrichello and brother Ralf in his Toyota completing the top eight. 60 Laps: 1 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 1hr 24mins 29.588secs, 2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:24:32.288, 3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 1:24:43.988, 4 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:24:47.388, 5 Jenson Button (Gbr) BAR 1:25:07.688, 6 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:25:42.688, 7 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1:25:43.888, 8 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:25:46.488. 9 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:25:48.088, 10 Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber at 1 lap, 11 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams at 1 lap, 12 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams at 1 lap, 13 David Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull at 1 lap, 14 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber at 1 lap, 15 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull at 1 lap, 16 Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR at 2 laps, 17 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan at 2 laps, 18 Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi at 3 laps, 19 Patrick Freisacher (Aut) Minardi at 4 laps Not Classified: Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 10 laps completed Fastest Lap: Kimi Raikkonen 1:20.502 (Lap 60) WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS Drivers' Championship: 1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 77pts, 2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 51, 3 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 43, 4 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 31, 5 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 31, 6 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 26, 7 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 25, 8 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams 25, 9 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 23, 10 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 22, 11 David Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 17, 12 Jenson Button (Gbr) BAR 9, 13 Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber 7, 14 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber 6, 15 Alexander Wurz (Aut) McLaren 6, 16 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan 6, 17 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 5, 18 Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi 4, 19 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 4, 20 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) McLaren 4, 21 Patrick Freisacher (Aut) Minardi 3, 22 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Red Bull 1 Manufacturers' Championship: 1 Renault 102pts, 2 McLaren 87, 3 Ferrari 74, 4 Toyota 54, 5 Williams 47, 6 Red Bull 22, 7 Sauber 13, 8 Jordan 11, 9 BAR 9, 10 Minardi 7. | 
