Lewis Hamilton said he had no regrets over not winning the Spanish Grand Prix as it was encouraging enough just to be able to put Red Bull under so much pressure.
The McLaren driver finished just 0.6sec behind winner Sebastian Vettel after a very close fight in the second half of the race.
"I don't think we can be disappointed with today," Hamilton said. "The team did a fantastic job throughout the pit stops and throughout the weekend, they put us in a fighting position.
"We got the best start and were able to keep up with the Red Bulls and Mark [Webber] in particular as Fernando [Alonso] was holding the Red Bulls up.
"As the race went on we had some serious pace but it was very tough to get past Seb at the end, they were massively quick in high-speed corners and, in the last corner, his downforce was incredibly clear. Nonetheless I gave my all and to move forward and score some good points and retain second place is great."
Hamilton said there was just no opportunity to get around Vettel when he caught him in the closing laps.
"We did a great job considering their car is a good step faster than ours," he said. "Our race pace has improved since last race, that was the positive.
"I wasn't able to follow through high speed Turn 3, obviously Turn 9 and the last corner, I was never able to get close enough to maintain the gap and then able to use the DRS. But I am very happy with the job both me and Jenson did and to be able to apply pressure to Red Bull considering the circumstances is good."