Barrichello Takes Pole Position at the British GP

Rubens Barrichello claimed his second pole position of the season for Ferrari when he topped the times in final qualifying for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone today.

The Brazilian driver, whose Ferrari team did a mammoth amount of testing in the build-up to this weekend's race, was the second man on track but his time proved unbeatable by the rest of the field.

His time of 1:21.209 left him 0.172 seconds ahead of Italian Jarno Trulli in the Renault after his teammate Michael Schumacher threw away a potential pole position when he went off on the exit of Abbey.

Finn Kimi Raikkonen, second in the Championship race eight points behind Schumacher, finished third with the Williams pair of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya unable to match the pace of Barrichello.

Those two, the two final cars out on track before Michael Schumacher, failed to continue their impressive recent form and finished fourth and seventh respectively after Michael slotted into fifth.

Brazilian Cristiano da Matta showed good pace in the Toyota to also split the Williams pair and finish sixth fastest, with the second Renault of Spaniard Fernando Alonso in eighth.

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve finally has some good luck and qualified in ninth place, sneaking ahead of the Jaguar pair of Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia and Australian Mark Webber, who were tenth and 11th respectively.

Barrichello, the second man out after Briton Justin Wilson because he spun off in Friday qualifying, immediately set the pace by blitzing the Minardi driver's time by 4.259 seconds.

Villeneuve, in the BAR-Honda, failed to get within a second of the Brazilian and the first man to do so was Raikkonen, who set a time of 1:21.695 to finish 0.486 seconds behind Barrichello.

Da Matta then moved into third with a time of 1:22.081 as the crowds, thin on the ground but mostly waving Union Jack flags in support of the four British drivers, prepared for the arrival of Jenson Button.

But they were disappointed when the BAR-Honda driver slowed with a suspected suspension failure after going off before the first sector of his flying lap and ground to a halt at Club corner.

That left three British drivers in the bottom four of the timesheets with Button joining Jordan's Ralph Firman, Justin Wilson and Dutch Minardi driver Jos Verstappen at the back.

The only remaining home hope was David Coulthard, who has struggled with his qualifying form recently. But he failed to get to grips with the one-lap run once again and finished 12th, more than a second slower than Raikkonen.

Trulli almost bumped Barrichello off the top spot with a lap that left him 0.172 seconds adrift and even the Williams pair, the two final cars out before Schumacher, could do nothing to beat the Ferrari man's earlier time.

Pos Driver Team T1 T2 Time 1. (2) Barrichello Ferrari (B) 26.313 60.439 1:21.209 2. (15) Trulli Renault (M) 26.577 60.662 1:21.381 + 0.172 3. (9) Raikkonen McLaren Mercedes (M) 26.479 60.657 1:21.695 + 0.486 4. (18) R.Schumacher Williams BMW (M) 26.660 60.770 1:21.727 + 0.518 5. (20) M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) 26.307 60.900 1:21.867 + 0.658 6. (11) da Matta Toyota (M) 26.844 61.149 1:22.081 + 0.872 7. (19) Montoya Williams BMW (M) 26.654 61.097 1:22.214 + 1.005 8. (17) Alonso Renault (M) 26.980 61.327 1:22.404 + 1.195 9. (8) Villeneuve BAR Honda (B) 26.857 61.641 1:22.591 + 1.382 10. (10) Pizzonia Jaguar Cosworth (M) 27.021 61.489 1:22.634 + 1.425 11. (13) Webber Jaguar Cosworth (M) 26.771 61.602 1:22.647 + 1.438 12. (14) Coulthard McLaren Mercedes (M) 26.672 61.620 1:22.811 + 1.602 13. (16) Panis Toyota (M) 26.801 61.224 1:23.042 + 1.833 14. (6) Frentzen Sauber Petronas (B) 26.945 62.075 1:23.187 + 1.978 15. (5) Fisichella Jordan Ford (B) 27.553 62.457 1:23.574 + 2.365 16. (7) Heidfeld Sauber Petronas (B) 27.218 62.527 1:23.844 + 2.635 17. (4) Firman Jordan Ford (B) 27.660 63.136 1:24.385 + 3.176 18. (1) Wilson Minardi Cosworth (B) 28.084 63.902 1:25.468 + 4.259 19. (3) Verstappen Minardi Cosworth (B) 28.098 63.917 1:25.759 + 4.550 20. (12) Button BAR Honda (B) 28.847 - No Time Pos ----- Sector 1 ----- ----- Sector 2 ----- ----- Sector 3 ----- 1. M.Schumacher 26.307 Trulli 34.085 Trulli 20.719 2. Barrichello 26.313 R.Schumacher 34.110 Barrichello 20.770 3. Raikkonen 26.479 Barrichello 34.126 da Matta 20.932 4. Trulli 26.577 Raikkonen 34.178 Villeneuve 20.950 5. Montoya 26.654 da Matta 34.305 R.Schumacher 20.957 6. R.Schumacher 26.660 Alonso 34.347 M.Schumacher 20.967 7. Coulthard 26.672 Panis 34.423 Raikkonen 21.038 8. Webber 26.771 Montoya 34.443 Webber 21.045 9. Panis 26.801 Pizzonia 34.468 Alonso 21.077 10. da Matta 26.844 M.Schumacher 34.593 Frentzen 21.112 11. Villeneuve 26.857 Villeneuve 34.784 Montoya 21.117 12. Frentzen 26.945 Webber 34.831 Fisichella 21.117 13. Alonso 26.980 Fisichella 34.904 Pizzonia 21.145 14. Pizzonia 27.021 Coulthard 34.948 Coulthard 21.191 15. Heidfeld 27.218 Frentzen 35.130 Firman 21.249 16. Fisichella 27.553 Heidfeld 35.309 Heidfeld 21.317 17. Firman 27.660 Firman 35.476 Wilson 21.566 18. Wilson 28.084 Wilson 35.818 Panis 21.818 19. Verstappen 28.098 Verstappen 35.819 Verstappen 21.842 20. Button 28.847 Top Speed: 268.9km/h (R.Schumacher, Williams-BMW) All timing unofficial