Barrichello Flies to Home GP Pole Position

Rubens Barrichello sent his home fans into wild frenzy of delight when he claimed his fourth pole position of the year in Saturday qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Barrichello put in a lap of 1:10.646 to top the times but he now faces an agonising wait to see if the bad luck that has stopped him from finishing all but one of his 11 races on home soil will continue.

Barrichello ,­ who has won two of the last three races,­ finished 0.204 seconds ahead of his second-placed Colombian friend Juan Pablo Montoya after running last in the session at the sun-drenched track.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen finished third fastest for McLaren-Mercedes with Sauber's Felipe Massa making it three South Americans in the top four and Briton Jenson Button making BAR the fifth constructor in the top five.

Button's teammate Takuma Sato finished sixth fastest with Ralf Schumacher seventh in the second Williams and Michael Schumacher qualifying eighth but dropping to 18th after changing his engine earlier in the day.

Fernando Alonso will line up eighth for Renault after finishing ninth fastest with Italians Jarno Trulli, of Toyota, and Giancarlo Fisichella, of Sauber, completing the top ten on the grid.

Button led the field after the first ten runners but he made a mistake in the second sector of his flying lap run and his lap of 1:11.092 was well of the pace expected from the frontrunners.

Raikkonen moved ahead of Button on his lap but his Scottish teammate David Coulthard finished more than eight tenths of a second slower after a disappointing run in his final qualifying session for McLaren.

Sato, like Button, made a mistake on his run but he recovered to finish two tenths of a second behind Raikkonen to conclude a disappointing session for the BAR team at a race they had hoped to challenge for victory.

Ralf and Michael Schumacher, the latter clearly fuelled up in preparation for a long first stint after changing his engine following a practice crash, failed to improve on Raikkonen's time.

Massa just missed out on first place from his Sauber predecessor Kimi Raikkonen when he went out but Montoya snatched the top spot with just Barrichello left to run.

Pos Driver Team Time 1. Barrichello Ferrari (B) 1:10.646 2. Montoya Williams-BMW (M) 1:10.850 + 0.204 3. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:10.892 + 0.246 4. Massa Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:10.922 + 0.276 5. Button BAR-Honda (M) 1:11.092 + 0.446 6. Sato BAR-Honda (M) 1:11.120 + 0.474 7. R.Schumacher Williams-BMW (M) 1:11.131 + 0.485 8. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 1:11.386 + 0.740 9. Alonso Renault (M) 1:11.454 + 0.808 10. Trulli Toyota (M) 1:11.483 + 0.837 11. Fisichella Sauber-Petronas (B) 1:11.571 + 0.925 12. Webber Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:11.665 + 1.019 13. Coulthard McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1:11.750 + 1.104 14. Villeneuve Renault (M) 1:11.836 + 1.190 15. Zonta Toyota (M) 1:11.974 + 1.328 16. Klien Jaguar-Cosworth (M) 1:12.211 + 1.565 17. Heidfeld Jordan-Ford (B) 1:12.829 + 2.183 18. Glock Jordan-Ford (B) 1:13.502 + 2.856 19. Baumgartner Minardi-Cosworth (B) 1:13.550 + 2.904 20. Bruni Minardi-Cosworth (B) No Time All timing unofficial