Turkey: Rubens Barrichello Qualifying Q&A

Rubens, consistent as we say. Talk us through qualifying from your point of view.

Qualifying went great. I had a bit of a worry in Q2 because I had a used set and when I put a new set on I had a bit of traffic, so I wasn't sure if I would have made it. I was seventh, but on the tenth that everyone had, but luckily I was in front. Q3 went quite well. I chose to use the prime tyres and I think it was a good choice but you never know which one is the better one in those conditions. I had three laps. I wish I could have pushed a little bit more on the second lap but I had traffic again as timing on this final qualifying is everything and there were lots of cars coming out of the pits while I was on my lap already. But very well, very well. Everything is so close and I have a good car and I am quite happy.

Yesterday you were saying you were suffering in the first sector. Presumably you have mastered that now.

Yeah, I think it has been a good job since last night with everything. The car this morning felt a lot better. I think the track may have come towards us a little bit but all in all the car feels a lot better. This morning we could feel that already and it was a question of trying which tyre to see what was next. As you could see I qualified on prime and Jenson qualified on the option. It is difficult to see which one was the better one. I had a better feeling through high speed (corners) with the prime. It was a little bit more slippery than I predicted but all in all it was still a good qualifying. We were just playing with each other that we don't know which one is better - starting second here or third. I hope it is third.

The position of the grid is a factor, isn't it?

Yeah, because here you don't have a lot of… in fact I've been told that there are no races at all. This is the only event of the year. We've been passing on the main straight on the right, that's the only clean line. Although I like Jenson very much, I hope my side is a lot cleaner than his.

This morning Ferrari seemed to be faster than we saw in qualifying. Are you expecting them to be a little heavier than you?

Before the weekend, I was expecting that they would be very fast and they proved this morning that they were but in qualifying it didn't seem to have that last bit of pace, so lucky us.

Tomorrow will be the seventh race of the season and Brawn GP is still the team to be beaten in Formula One. Did you expect to be in this position since in December you had no team, no future with everything going on, Honda leaving Formula One?

Well, every time I talked to the team during November, December, they seemed to be so happy with how much they got back in terms of downforce and how much happier they were with a different engine, just for the sake of having something different. We knew it was going to be competitive but if you'd asked me, honestly, what I thought, going to the first race, I thought competitive would mean fifth or sixth. From someone who was starting 13th or 14th, it was that much better and then we could conquer more. But it was impressive from the first lap. Jenson was able to drive it first and after four laps I went to ask him and he said 'yeah, we're going to have a good season' and I believed him. So when I drove the car, it was a fairly good feeling.

You only had one outing. Was it clear from the beginning that you needed three laps to bring the tyres to grip? If you had started a little bit earlier, might a fourth lap have been even faster?

That could be an argument, because I question… this morning the fourth lap was better than the third lap but in qualifying, four laps is a bit difficult. You have cars going around and basically I lost the first two laps today, due to the fact that I had traffic, so I pushed on the third lap and that was fine but the balance wasn't as good as I expected, so maybe the fourth lap could have been better. I wish we knew how much it was from one. I would have had less fuel as well. All in all, I wish to know how much was in the tyres but I think it's very, very close. I just don't know if my ones are better or not. I had a good qualifying with a little bit of understeer and I heard that those guys had a good qualifying with a bit of oversteer, so it's a bit of a non-situation.

Two questions for you: the first one is you started out not as quick in Q3, you really did your quickest lap on the last lap. Was this due to the hard tyre or pure traffic? And secondly, you and Jenson seem like perfect brothers. After every race you are hand-in-hand but you are second most of the time, so how big is the pressure on you now to beat him finally?

First question; it was a bit of both, it was the tyre, I knew the first lap wasn't going to be the faster one but I had traffic as well. I pushed a little harder on the second lap but I had traffic again, so the third lap was the only one when I could achieve something.

You know, as much as I love Jenson as a friend, I hate him as a driver, so it's very, very simple. We get on very well. I think it's a fantastic pairing for the team. We are working well together and as you said, if you take Q2 for example I'm in front of him and then Q3 he was able to do the job. Today I couldn't say I had a problem with this or that. You never know what the tyres might have done for me but with me it's my determination. People might have this feeling that because I was second to Schumacher, that I will finish second to him, but I will fight him very, very hard. This time we work well for the team, there are no choices, no sad options like I used to have at Ferrari and this time I just have to conquer and I hope it starts tomorrow.