Barrichello Berates Irvine for Holding Him Up

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello portrayed former teammate Eddie Irvine as an 'old' man who says one thing and does another after Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix.

The Brazilian, runner-up to World Champion teammate Michael Schumacher in a day of domination for the Italian team at their home circuit, made his anger clear after being held up by the Jaguar driver.

He gestured at Irvine on the track and, questioned about its significance later, explained it meant "just go to Hell".

"It's so silly," he added. "He's the one who talks so much at briefings -- blah, blah, blah -- and then he holds me up for three quarters of a lap.

"He lets Ralf (Schumacher) by in a nice way, he could have done it with me at the same place but then he came in and stayed in for another five or six corners. I just found it a bit silly. "He's getting old, anyway," added Barrichello, who has been on the end of plenty of Irvine's criticism in the past and was his team mate at Jordan in 1994 and 1995.

There was no immediate reaction from Irvine. Barrichello, who scored his first points of the season on Sunday after three retirements in a row, found their time together difficult and went to Stewart before replacing Irvine as Schumacher's Ferrari team mate in 2000.

The Northern Irish driver, 36, became the oldest in Formula One this year after French veteran Jean Alesi retired at the end of 2001.

First Points

Barrichello was delighted with his first points but suggested he could have done even better had he managed to hang on to the pole position he almost earned in Saturday's qualifying.

Racing in the 2002 Ferrari for the first time, the Brazilian qualified in Schumacher's spare but the German, who grabbed pole in the dying seconds, took it back on Sunday while Barrichello was handed Schumacher's previous car.

He made a sluggish start, overtaken by Ralf and only getting ahead again at the first pit stop.

After a few laps, the telemetry also packed up and late in the race -- following his second pit stop - he was told to slow down to nurse the engine as he began to reel in Michael Schumacher in a processional race.

"In all honesty...my start was probably the same as Michael's but I was on the dirty side (of the track) and so Ralf had a jump on me," said Barrichello

"I had no way to close the door, he was already by my side. I think I paid the price for the time I lost yesterday. If I had kept pole yesterday it probably could have been different.

"But there's no crying right now. I'm very happy, I had a brilliant car. When I had a clean track I was just driving the best I could. Unfortunately, being behind someone at Imola you just lose downforce and you can just follow."