Montoya spins away the lead with just 10 laps to go in Melbourne

The Colombian was leading with 10 laps to go when he lost control at the first chicane, handing victory to David Coulthard's McLaren.

Montoya recovered to take second place just ahead of Coulthard's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher.

The mistake happened just after Montoya himself had taken the lead when Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher made his final stop for fuel and tyres.

"In spite of this good outcome, I must say this was a pretty disastrous race for me," Montoya said.

The safety car came out twice and just cancelled our advantage both times Juan Pablo Montoya

"I went into a turn and simply went sideways when I picked up the throttle.

"It was absolutely my fault but it was the only mistake I made this weekend."

In a race packed with incident and lead changes, Montoya had been put in a position to win following an error by Raikkonen.

The Finn was handed a drive-through penalty for breaking the pit-lane speed limit by just 1km/h when he came in for his fuel stop.

Montoya fends off Raikkonen and Schumacher in the closing laps

That dropped him behind Montoya, Schumacher and Coulthard and cost him the chance of his first Grand Prix victory.

Raikkonen was put in a position to win by a brilliant late change of plan by McLaren, who chose to switch to a one-stop strategy with a stop after the warm-up lap just before the start of the race.

Ferrari: Errors cost us race

But Montoya felt his two-stop strategy would have been ideal had it not been for two safety car periods cutting his lead. Each time he lost an advantage of about 10 seconds as the field bunched up.

Race report

"We started on dry tyres and this was an excellent decision but then the safety car came out twice and just cancelled our advantage both times," the Colombian said.