Bravo Barrichello
After being plunged down the field when a kilted protestor ran down the track and caused the safety car to appear, Barrichello, having already lost pole position, carried out a series of passing moves to go from seventh to victory.
His most impressive was reserved for Kimi Raikkonen who was leading the race with 12 of the 60 laps left when he took advantage of a slip by the Finn at the Bridge curve to nip past leaving the McLaren racer to come back from the gravel.
It was Barrichello's first win of the season and sixth of his career and it also kept him in the hunt for the title.
"In the last two weeks people have been saying so many things about me hopefully they will shut up now," he said as he reacted to criticism following his first lap spin at the French Grand Prix which left him struggling to eventually finish in seventh.
He was in similar trouble early on here when he slipped from pole position to third at the start as the Renault of Jarno Trulli as well as Raikkonen's McLaren went past.
"I took a lot of criticism after Canada and France and this performance has answered my critics.
"The race was hard but entertaining. I lost two places at the start because I had to wait a long time for Trulli to come on to the grid.
"I had a problem on the warm-up lap. When I accelerated a little bit to get some temperature on the brakes and the tyres, Jarno didn't accelerate as much so I opened a gap.
"As far as I'm concerned this is not the way it should be. We should keep the pack very close together so he made me slow up a lot and when I got to the grid I waited for so long and my tyres really dropped temperature that I had no grip when the start came so I lost two positions."
But more drama was to follow when the protestor put his life on the line on Hangar Straight. The safety car came out and both Barrichello and teammate Michael Schumacher pitted together.
For Barrichello, that was the sign to attack and he did it in stunning style picking off driver after driver until he got to Raikkonen and the Finn buckled.
"My passing move on Kimi was very close and I almost lost my nose. It was aggressive but fair."
Barrichello also revealed why he broke down in tears on the podium.
"I always get very emotional when I hear the Brazilian national anthem. It is impossible for me not to cry it makes me think of my family and my father who sold his car so that I could go racing.
"Your last win is always your best and this one certainly ranks highly."
"I cannot think of a better race in the last 10 years," said Jackie Stewart, the spearhead of the campaign to save the British Grand Prix, after seeing his former driver triumph.
"It was fantastic, one of the most wonderful races I've seen and it was a great advert for British motorsport. Rubens drove a superb race and fully deserved the win. He is a masterful racer."
Michael Schumacher's title lead has been cut to seven points before his home race at Hockenheim in two weeks' time but it could have been worse but for an 'exceptional' according to his bosses climb through the field to claim fourth.
"Fourth is not bad considering what happened and my lead over Kimi has only been reduced by one point," said Schumacher.
Montoya's third successive runners-up spot took him into third place in the championship, 14 points behind, as he leapfrogged over team-mate Ralf Schumacher whose two-race winning streak was ended as he finished ninth. He is now 16 adrift of his brother.
"That was one of the best races of the year," said Montoya. "My championship chances are better. If I win the next race and Michael doesn't finish I am four points behind. If it's the reverse, I will be 24 points behind him."
Ralph Firman was 13th for Jordan.
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