Elated Barrichello keeps feet on ground

The local hero made the most of the conditions to grab his first pole position since 2004, crucially in a session in which team-mate Jenson Button finished down in 14th.

Button is 14 points ahead of Barrichello in the standings with just two races to go.

Barrichello said it was a special day for him, but admitted he was keeping his feet on the ground as he is yet to convert his pole into a good result in the race.

"It is a special time for me," said Barrichello. "It's obviously a great time when you go out and you have a balance, it doesn't matter if it is wet or dry, just off you go. There were plenty of strategies, you never know what is going to happen, it was so variable.

"I am so happy, it was a great drive and it may be that we have less fuel than them, but it's better to start at the front and have my own race pace than towards the middle of the pack.

"I am very, very happy with this situation. It is great to see that all the people stayed to see it because they went through a heavy period of rain. I was expecting them to leave but happy they stayed to see it."

He added: "After so many years, after 17 in F1, I never got out of the car for a pee twice in the middle of qualifying! I am very proud of what we achieved today. We were on the borderline for Q2, we should have gone for inters but we were lucky enough to just make it.

"I knew car was competitive, like I said, I am keeping my feet on the ground because we have won nothing yet. We did fantastic today, it will be a great night and I will sleep, but we still have to get everything tomorrow."

The Brazilian said he will not look at what Button or Sebastian Vettel do tomorrow, and instead will only focus on winning the race.

"It is obviously great to start from the front," he said. "I am not watching what is going on on the side. I will race as hard as I can to win the race, then when race is finished I will open the radio and see where Jenson and Sebastian finish. I am looking forward to tomorrow."

Barrichello reckons the session, which lasted nearly three hours, should not have been restarted after Force India's Tonio Liuzzi crashed.

"We saw today, we were not expecting the rain that came down. The worst time of qualifying was when Liuzzi went off. We should not have restarted qualifying at that time, on that straight I was in fourth gear, you have not much pleasure from visibility and you are aquaplaning so don't know what is happening. Sorry you guys had to wait, I had to wait but had pleasure to drive car."