German thanks team for giving him opportunity to add to tally.

Sebastian Vettel insists that it would have taken a lot to remove him from the final point-scoring place in the Canadian Grand Prix, even though he admits that he was in probably the most difficult position of anyone in the top eight at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

That the German was even in position to score a point was laudable in itself, however. Scuderia Toro Rosso had shown potential on the opening day, once Vettel and team-mate Sebastien Bourdais had got the new STR3 dialled into the Montreal layout, but a disastrous matter of minutes on Saturday morning appeared to have undone all the good work of day one.

Both cars hit the same piece of wall exiting the return leg chicane but, while Bourdais got off relatively lightly after a glancing blow, Vettel destroyed the right-hand side of his car to the point where the STR crew gave up on the idea of repairing it in time for qualifying. Instead, the German - who had opened the team's 2008 account last time out in Monaco - had to sit out the afternoon's proceedings while a spare car was built for him.

Starting from the pit-lane should have spelled the end of any point-scoring ambitions for Vettel but the unpredictability of the Canadian Grand Prix, combined with a tricky track surface and a solid strategy, allowed him to not only keep in touch with the pack, but also make his way through it, eventually rising to eighth place, but with both a delayed Nico Rosberg and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen desperate to rescue their weekends with at least a point.

"Starting from pit-lane wasn't easy but, straight away, I was able to catch the field, with a very good pace as the car felt quite good," Vettel reported after claiming his second straight points finish, "I was able to make up a couple of places and then, after the safety car came out, which for sure helped us, we ran a one-stop strategy.

"The last ten laps didn't make my life easy - I was in one of the most difficult position as the cars I had behind were quite strong, and the conditions were really bad with the asphalt still falling apart. You couldn't afford to go off-line or you would lose at least a second. I was also held up by Barrichello - I think he had a problem - [but] I wanted the point and resisted the various attacks."

The German also reckoned that he could have done better than eighth, having been delayed by a similar pit-stop problem to team-mate Bourdais.

"I don't know exactly what happened during the pit-stop," he admitted, "I would say it was a problem with the refuelling rig, but it cost us a lot of time - and maybe two positions in the ranking."

The fact that he was able to take part in the race at all was not lost on Vettel, however, and he was quick to thank those who had made his run to eighth possible.

"First of all, I have to thank the mechanics who did a great job to rebuild the car after my mistake on Saturday morning," he admitted, "They did an unbelievable job, working through the night to get the work done. It's thanks to them that I raced today. It was a great race, I had a great fun - a fantastic race for me and the team."

Team boss Franz Tost was equally praising of the efforts behind the scenes, but reserved his greatest accolades for the driver.

"Vettel did a really fantastic job to start from the pit-lane and pick up a point," he noted, "He might have finished higher if it wasn't for a problem with the refuelling rig, but he drove a very mature race, at one point managing to fight off Kubica and Alonso and, later, keeping Kovalainen - in a much faster car - at bay. It was a very good, well-judged drive."