Brawn GP put in a great performance in qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix with Rubens Barrichello finishing the day in fifth with team-mate Jenson Button just behind him.
On the warm track tactics came in to play early as Brawn GP fuelled the cars for a one-stop race after taking in to account the KERS cars ability to get a good start.
Team boss Ross Brawn was a very happy man, “Qualifying saw an excellent performance from Rubens, Jenson and the team today to put us in a good position for the race tomorrow. Rubens and Jenson drove extremely well in Q3 with our chosen one-stop strategy to secure fifth and sixth positions and the closeness of their lap times shows that they achieved everything possible from the car. We have the majority of the KERS cars just ahead of us so provided our drivers get a good start, there is everything to play for in the race tomorrow.”
Brazilian Rubens Barrichello had fun today in qualifying saying “That was probably one of my best qualifying laps at Monza and I really enjoyed myself out there.”
Barrichello also talked of the advantage they hope to gain over the KERS assisted cars by fuelling themselves for a one-stop race. “We had the ability to be on pole today but strategically we had to consider the pace of the KERS cars off the line and so we put a lot of fuel in the car and focused on what was right for our race. I had a great lap with the fuel onboard and fifth position is the best that I could have achieved so I’m really pleased that we got everything possible out of the car. It will be interesting to see the fuel figures but I’m confident that we’re in a good position. I just love racing here so I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow.”
Championship leader Jenson Button was relieved to be in the hunt for a decent position today after a string of bad luck and bad performances in previous Grand Prix.
The Englishman was happy with sixth but a little annoyed to lose out to team-mate Barrichello, “Rubens and I have been so close on lap times all weekend and he’s ended up just fifteen-hundredths ahead of me which is the difference between getting your head down on the straights. I obviously didn’t do it enough! We got the best out of the car today and it felt good on the heavy fuel load which is important because it’s not just about qualifying, you have to consider your race. It’s been a positive day and I’m confident that we can have a good race.”
