Rubens gearing up for century run

Barrichello has been one of the revelations of this season. His first two years with the Stewart team were difficult, but he has been a frontrunner in every race so far in 1999, leading his home Grand Prix at Interlagos and finishing on the podium at Imola.

Barrichello is one of the most experienced drivers in F1, despite only being 26 years old. He made his debut with Jordan in 1993, and was one of the stars of the season.

Always impressive in wet conditions, he made the headlines by running third at Donington Park.

The death of his friend and idol Ayrton Senna had a profound effect on Barrichello, and his form suffered for a while. Though he scored several podiums for Jordan in four years with the team, he never won a race and was relieved to move on at the end of a difficult 1996.

Joining the new Stewart-Ford outfit Barrichello produced some spectacular drives in 1997, especially in qualifying. third on the grid in Canada.

However, reliability problems meant he rarely finished, although he did take a stunning second at a soaked Monaco.

The 1998 car was off the pace, but Stewart have bounced back this year and many expect them to take their first victory before the year is over. After testing at Nogaro, Barrichello expects to be well and truly on the pace in his 100th GP.

'It looked as though the car was performing pretty well with high downforce at Nogaro,' he said, 'I know we got on to the podium at Imola, but in terms of car performance I think we can have an even better weekend here than we did two weeks ago.'

He was only seventh in practice, but was pleased with the reliability of his car

'The fact that we have been running for 95 per cent of the time through the session is a major step in the right direction.'