Coulthard: Thanks Juan Pablo!

David Coulthard unusually thanked Juan Pablo Montoya at the end of the United States Grand Prix after following up his eighth place in Canada with seventh place and add another two points onto his tally.

Having struggled all weekend with the balance of his Red Bull, Coulthard was one of the big winners from the first corner problems, admitting he hung back when others around him collided at the first part of the turn one and then driving past another five cars in the second half to jump to tenth place by the end of the first lap.

From here, Coulthard was forced to fend off pressure from the sister Toro Rosso car of Vitantonio Liuzzi but despite adopting a fuel strategy that took him deeper into the race than any of his rivals, he was not only able to keep the Italian at bay, he was also able to leapfrog Nico Rosberg's Williams to move into the points in eighth.

Eighth became seventh when Ralf Schumacher retired late on in the race to give Coulthard one of his strongest finishes of the year. Indeed, the Scot was in no doubt as to whom he had to thank once the race was over.

"Firstly, a special thanks to Montoya for his contribution to my points finish!

"I was up along side Christian at the start going into Turn one and could see Tonio coming up on the outside. I didn't like the look of it, so I backed off, kept in the middle of the road and let them all go past. I understand that Montoya then created a shunt, so we picked up a lot of places there. There's an incident in Turn one almost every year, so I was mindful of being in a position off the grid and keeping it. From there, it was just a battle with Liuzzi and Rosberg.

"The team's strategist guy Will Courtenay did a great job today and again my engineer Mark Hutcheson gave me some good advice on the radio, so we were able to get out in front of Nico. I'm happy for the whole team. To get these points, especially at this time of year, will help us against Williams."