Rubens Barrichello Q&A
Amid the fuss over Michael Schumacher's disastrous outing at Imola, a good showing by Rubens Barrichello went largely unnoticed. Having qualified sixth he was always going to be up against it on the hard rubber and a one-stop strategy. But his late stop allowed him to move up the order, and the team successfully switched to a two-stop schedule for the second half of the race. By then he was miles behind Ralf Schumacher and David Coulthard, but significantly he kept the gap to the leader at around the 36-37s mark as he matched Ralf's pace in the latter stages of the race. In the circumstances third place was a reasonable reward for Rubens, who's had a tough season to date. Adam Cooper spoke to him after the Imola race
"At the end of the day, I'm not frustrated, because I think my race from where I was on the first lap was quite good. The choices on everything were basically quite good, but they were not ideal when you start from the back. So it was one of my best races in terms of performance, in terms of having a good time out there, overtaking people, and doing the best I could."
"My main goal is to win. When you're in front of him it doesn't mean much. You want to win."
"No. It was completely my race and his race."
"We tested the other ones, but I think the weather helped the softs. We were not planning on having a sunny day, that's the thing - that's some of it. On Friday Michael tested and he was so against the other ones, it was such a normal conclusion."
"Yes, from the start."
"Balance was definitely better on the hard ones. I didn't have problems with balance at all. The car felt good throughout, it's just that Williams was more competitive, that's all. I think as for Coulthard, it's debatable... If I had been in front, it would have been a normal race."
"They have amazing power, and a good tyre, and the car must be doing quite well as well. They have a good package right now, so we have to start to think about it."
"Yes, it's good to see new faces on the podium."
"It's a new era coming in, so I don't know how we're going to be."
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