Ecstatic Rubens wins debut pole for Stewart

The Brazilian started at the front in the similarly rain-hit qualifying for the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix.

And it also means team principal Jackie Stewart will have to make good on a promise to buy Barrichello's wife a gold Rolex watch.

'Jackie reminded me about the watch right after qualifying,' joked Barrichello. 'That's a good thing for a Scotsman to do.'

'This was just like Spa in 94 it feels great. It was the right time to be out on the track. The team did a fantastic job to send me out then.

'The weather man came and told me it was going to rain after 15 minutes of the session.'

'I saw Jean was 1.5 seconds faster and I know he is really good in the wet. I said 'I must push on this lap' because it is now or never. It was tricky but I managed to do a fast time.

'We had in mind to go out straight away. We waited to see if anyone else would go out but Gary Anderson who was there in '94 when I did it in Jordan and the engineers all made the decision together.'

Barrichello was fastest in the morning dry session as well.

'This time is not a bluff but McLaren and Ferrari had not tried new tyres in the dry session.

'I have a lot of confidence for the race, but a lot of people did not use new tyres in the morning. It doesn't mean I would have been on pole in the dry, in fact I think I would have been fourth or fifth perhaps.'

'But it's very difficult to overtake here so if we have a good balance for the race I am really hoping for a place on the podium at least.'