Montoya magnanimous after win is snatched away.

Juan Montoya should have won the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos yesterday [Sunday], but was taken out of the race with the likes of Michael Schumacher at his mercy.

The Colombian showed that his pre-season claim that no-one in F1 scared him was no hollow boast by muscling his way past Schumacher the minute the safety car pulled off at the end of lap two. Pushing the Ferrari driver wide through the first part of the Senna 'S', Montoya was able to hold his ground through part two and, once clear, was able to pull away from the chasing pack.

Remarkably, as the pit-stop schedule played out, it became clear that Montoya was on a one-stop strategy compared to Schumacher's two, meaning that he had used a heavier car to out-brake the world champion, and made full use of the BMW V10's horsepower to open up a gap over the lighter Ferrari in the following laps.

With Schumacher stopping early, and second placed David Coulthard some distance behind the Williams, Montoya appeared to have the race in his pocket - only for it all to go horribly wrong at mid-distance.

Passing the tenth place battle between Giancarlo Fisichella and Jos Verstappen, Montoya would not have expected the Dutchman to miss his braking point and nerf the Williams off the road and into immediate retirement - but this is exactly what happened, as the Arrows drivers appeared to get it wrong on the now slippery surface.

"I saw that I was given a blue flag and I saw Montoya coming, so I went to the left to let him past," Verstappen explained, "Once he came past, I moved back over onto the racing line - and he then braked very early. I'm very sorry for him because I heard he was leading the race, but I couldn't avoid him. I hit him and that was it."

Montoya, for his part, took the bitter pill very well, showing some of the PR training he invariably received during his two years in the United States with Chip Ganassi.

"I am disappointed, of course, as it was going to be one of the best days of my life and it turned, unluckily, into a bad one!" he sighed, "I don't know what happened, but I think Verstappen hit me because he braked too late, just a few metres later than me, so we touched. I went for the inside of the track and braked in the same place as always, on that corner."

Inspired by the performance of the Williams-BMW combination in both his own hands and those of team-mate Ralf Schumacher, Montoya pointed towards Imola and the start of the European season as his new focus. Refusing to dwell for long on the disappointment of Brazil, the Colombian insisted that the FW23 could be a race winner in 2001 - and that he wanted to be the man to break the duck.

"The car was really fast and had been performing very well throughout the weekend," he said, "Better things will come."