Thaindian News

Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct 18 (DPA) Championship-chasing Rubens Barrichello delighted the home fans Saturday as he took pole in chaotic conditions for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
His pole position is even more important as the championship leader and Brawn GP team-mate Jenson Button managed only the 14th-fastest time.

“It is a special time for me,” Barrichello said after securing his first pole for 87 races. “Qualifying first is great and the car was good. It just feels nice.

“There were plenty of strategies, it was A, B, C, D, E. You never knew what what going to happen next. Come back in, put on a new tyre, stay out. It was changing all the time. But I am so happy, just so happy.

“It was a great drive and it might be that we have less fuel than them, but it is better to start at the front and have your own pace than to be towards the middle.”

He complimented the big crowd, who braved torrential downpours to watch the qualifying. “I was expecting people to leave, but they stayed and that made me very happy.”

Ahead of the second-last race of the season Barrichello, who posted a time of 1 minute 19.576 seconds for the 4.309 kilometre-long Interlagos circuit, trails Button by 15 points.

There was also disappointment for Sebastian Vettel, who also still has a chance to win the championship, but is 17 points behind Button.

In a qualifying session which had to be interrupted several times due to adverse weather conditions and a crash, the German Red Bull driver failed to qualify for the second session and will start from 16th on the grid.

Defending champion Lewis Hamilton also failed to advance to the second session as he had the 18th-fastest time.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who questioned the decision to go ahead with the qualifying session, had the second-fastest time, while Force India’s Adrian Sutil will start from third on the grid, alongside Toyota’s Jarno Trulli.

Webber said that the session had been very tricky. “Especially the first one. We scraped through - just. When the conditions became better, I was much more competitive.”

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastien Buemi in a Toro Rosso are on the third row of the grid, while Williams’ Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica in a BMW-Sauber will start from seventh and eighth place respectively.

The final qualifiers in the top ten are Kazuki Nakajima in a Williams and Fernando Alonso in his Renault.

In the second session a serious accident by Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi had the session red-flagged for several minutes as marshalls had to clear the track of the debris.