‘Rubinho’ unhappy; Todt surprised by lap times

The Brazilian's Ferrari has not been a match for team-leader and pole-sitter Michael Schumacher so far this weekend, despite Barrichello's avowed mission to win in front of his fellow Paulistas at Interlagos. In Saturday's single qualifying session, he was 0.411s off the German's pace.

"I am very disappointed with the outcome of this qualifying session," he said. "In this morning's free practice I only ran one set of tyres. In the afternoon, on new tyres, I was never able to find the ideal balance of the car, which was continually understeering.

"I am not at all happy, as I felt I could have got a much better result. Sixth place was certainly not what I was expecting here in front of my home crowd."

Team principal Jean Todt said: "It's a shame [for Rubens] as there is only one tenth of a second separating second and sixth places, which shows just how closely matched the cars are."

Todt also expressed surprise that pole times had fallen so little from 2000, given the tyre war between Bridgestone and Michelin.

"It is interesting to note that this year's pole time is only just under three tenths of a second quicker than last year's," he said. "Looking at the first two races, one would have expected a bigger difference.

"I think we can expect a very open race tomorrow, which will be particularly hard on the cars, because of the high temperatures."