Rubens Barrichello

It's appropriate that Rubens made his debut with Jordan that year, retiring with a gearbox problem, and since then everything that could go wrong has. There have been a few mistakes, but usually he's been taken out by obscure mechanical dramas that he could do nothing about. Without a doubt his quest for that elusive win will be one of the stories of the weekend, even if he tries to play it down.

"We have to take it as another chance," he says. "I don't take it us bad luck, I don't take taboos, I don't take anything. It's another real good chance with a real good car. Bridgestone are making all the effort to enable me to go for it. So I'm really happy going home, I'm really happy seeing my fans. Probably winning three in a row going to Brazil would have been terrible pressure!"

Suzuka could indeed easily have been a hat-trick for Rubens, who won so decisively there the previous year, and it's worth taking a closer look at his weekend in Japan. Things started to go wrong in first qualifying, for as Shanghai winner he was first out on a still soaking track when qualifying finally kicked off on Sunday morning.

That compromised his position for the session that mattered, but he was nevertheless on a great lap when he messed up the chicane and slid wide. The time lost was enough to strand him down in 15th, leaving him with an impossible task come the afternoon.

"I knew I had to come with something special, and that was something special on my side because we know that our tyres are very good at any stage, but on damp conditions, are tough. At that time the track was still very wet for me, and you could see from Massa, he went off. I couldn't give up, I had to try. Even if I had braked 10m before it wouldn't have helped. It was too wet.

"I was the first one out on a track that was completely out of shape. On the very same track as Michael I was able to have a good car and go as fast as him. If I had started from pole or the front row, it would have been a completely different story..."

From where he was on the grid Rubens had a difficult task, not least because some of those immediately ahead on the grid were also quick guys who had struck bad luck, and would not be in a hurry to let him past. In the first part of the race he was not able to show his true speed.

"I was stuck behind Villeneuve, who was going so slow, and then I lost time behind Trulli and Montoya. When I passed them, I was able to do 1m32-33s. Juan is a difficult one. He goes to overtake everyone, but it's so damn difficult to pass him, he doesn't want to be overtaken! He was out of shape so many times. He made sure he wouldn't make it easy. I had to keep on trying.

'At least I made it through, and on the same straight I made it past Trulli as well. I don't think he was expecting me, but luckily we didn't touch, because it was very close.'

While he survived what would have been a spectacular brush with Trulli at Turn One, a later move didn't come off. It was missed by the live TV broadcast, but a replay that emerged later showed him diving down the inside at the chicane as David Coulthard turned in. It looked for all the world that DC hadn't seen him, and proved to be the case.

Barrichello insisted he was close enough to make the move: 'I came quite quickly out of 130R and basically I was able to go for the inside. But to be very honest I think the last time he looked behind was 130R, because he thought there would have been no possibility. But I was coming very fast, and I would have made it stick. So it was a shame. I was only a car and a half, a car actually, behind him. So I went to the inside, and I got him by surprise.

'It is a race incident, there's nothing else to say, but it's very unfortunate that he didn't see me. It wasn't like a crazy move or anything, it was just a normal thing, but he didn't see me. On the TV you can see that he's turning so quickly into the corner, he's trying to make the corner.'

The net result was that both men were out with suspension damage. The stewards decided that no further action need be taken, and the two drivers - who had spent much time socialising during the weekend - simply shrugged their shoulders.

'It's unfortunate that we've spent two or three days as friends and so on, and all of a sudden we touch and we both didn't finish. It's a shame because I made it stick, I was there already by his side, and I knew I would have made the corner - a little bit long for sure, because I had no line. But then unfortunately he turned on me, that was it. But you remember the good times. Monza and China will remain for me, and the fastest lap here will say that I had the car and chances to win the race.'

So can he do it this weekend? Interlagos is probably not the best track for the Ferrari/Bridgestone combination, and while the red cars will still be the ones to beat, some of the Michelin runners have good reason to feel confident. But Rubens is on a roll, and if he like Takuma Sato in Suzuka he can turn the pressure into a positive, motivating force, he could finally get the win he treasures more than any other. And after all, his team mate has indicated that he will help if he can...