Rubens Barrichello Q&A

Rubens Barrichello picked up his eighth podium position of the season in Hockenheim, and in so doing put himself into serious contention for second place in the World Championship. He is now seven points behind David Coulthard, and one behind Ralf Schumacher. A two-stop strategy helped him to run quickly and pass the McLarens early on, but without the retirements around him he would not have finished second. His advantage over the rest was so big that even a faulty second pit stop was no big problem. Adam Cooper spoke to him after the race

"I'm ready for Indianapolis now!"

"The first start was quite good. The actual start itself wasn't any better than the second one, but I was lucky just to keep out of trouble and pass Coulthard into the first one, and I passed Hakkinen into the second chicane. But Mika, for some reason, lost his brake point and he hit me quite hard. I was worried that there was some damage."

"I would think that for the red flag we could have stopped before we went though. I think the red flag was OK, but they should have stopped us before the debris."

"Eventually they told me that they would change the wing just as a precaution. There was damage, but it should have been OK. They taped up the diffuser. He went right into the middle, so it was split a little bit."

"We re-used again the other one. It was almost new."

"Yes, they checked it and there was no problem. We used it in the second or third stint. I asked them can we use them again, and they said OK, we can."

"Even if you go for two stops, it's not a lot of kilos that you carry less. It makes it tricky, because eventually we're talking about 20-30kgs. DC was really quick on the straight, but he was struggling on braking, so my chances were there."

"The thinking was compared to last year the tyres are so much softer. The weather wasn't that hot, but I really think it would have given some rear degradation."

"No, no. I'm completely conscious of what we do. In actual fact I asked if I could do two, and Ross gave me a good reason to start on two. On one stop I would have finished sixth. This way I could have much more fun!"

"It's not something where I'm glad I went on the outside, it's nothing like that. I just really thought there was no need for us to lose so much time, and we were losing time. He didn't have any lines into the chicanes, so if I was in his place, and the car behind is two seconds faster, I'm going to make it difficult, but I don't want to try to make it impossible. He was doing 1m44s, I was doing high 1m42s, and for three laps we both did 1m46s! So that could have cost us a position, so at that time I would have done different. But having said that he was very fair, and we had spaces to play. If you know the guy, and you respect the guy and the guy respects you, it's OK. With DC we've known each other for a long time."

"Yes, it looked bad on braking, for sure."

"They were telling me just to stay cool. There was some problem with the fuel rig, and they said we have a long time until the other one [third placed Villeneuve]. Ralf was in a different league."

"I don't know. I'm just going on holiday now!"