Barrichello Savours Historic Victory

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was delighted after he made history on Sunday as the first winner of a Formula One Grand Prix in China.

While the Brazilian celebrated before a sellout 160,000-strong crowd, his World Champion teammate Michael Schumacher was lapped in the first race he has finished without scoring a point for five years.

It was Barrichello's second win in a row, and ninth of a career spent largely in Schumacher's shadow, and gave China a winner in red as the gleaming $325 million Shanghai circuit made its Grand Prix debut.

"I had a very good start and I was amazed by the grip on the first lap...I was feeling good the whole way through," said the Brazilian, second place in the Championship now assured behind Schumacher who won his seventh title last month.

"It was really nice. Towards the end, because I had an eight-second gap, I didn't push that much," said Barrichello, who drenched the elegantly suited Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo with champagne on the podium before pouring the remainder over his own head.

His race from pole position to chequered flag stood out in marked contrast to Schumacher's unhappy afternoon. The German finished 12th and was lapped for the first time since the Hungarian Grand Prix of August 2003.

"Certainly it was not my weekend," he said. "But I have had so many good weekends this year and we have still won the Grand Prix with Rubens and those are the important factors."

The last time Schumacher, who has retired from just one race this year, had finished a Grand Prix without scoring points was Australia in 1999 when he came eighth and the scoring system was different.

After spinning out in the worst qualifying performance of his career on Saturday and starting from the pitlane, the winner of 12 of the season's first 13 races banged wheels with Jaguar's Christian Klien on lap 12.

A spin three laps later pushed him back from 11th to 12th place and his frustration was compounded by a puncture 20 laps from the end.