Button suffers Brazil blow but Barrichello delighted with pole
Jenson Button will start a disastrous 14th on the grid following a rain-wrecked qualifying session ahead of tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix, with Brawn GP teammate Rubens Barichello taking pole position in front of a delighted home crowd.
The championship leader’s position equals his worst performance of the season in Belgium when he crashed out on the opening lap after an accident with Renault’s Romain Grosjean.
Although the 29-year-old safely made it through the opening 20-minute Q1 that accounted for another of his title rivals in Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel, he struggled in Q2.
The second qualifying period was red flagged after just two minutes and 36 seconds when Tonio Liuzzi suffered a sizeable crash in his Force India.
Under leaden skies and heavy rain, race stewards delayed the re-start for 71 minutes until conditions finally improved.
Barrichello now has the perfect chance to take the title race down to the wire in Abu Dhabi on November 1.
The 37-year-old will start from pole for the first time this year, and for the first time in five seasons, sending the rain-soaked Brazilian fans into ecstasy and chants of ’Rubinho, Rubinho’.
Barrichello, who trails Button by 14 points, has never won at this track in 16 starts, with his best finish a mere third.
Behind Barrichello are Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil in his Force India, with Toyota’s Jarno Trulli fourth, and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen fifth.
“I love these conditions and I’m really happy for those fans who stayed behind to see all this," said an amazed Barrichello, on pole for the 14th time in his career.
“We never knew what was going to happen, whether to employ plan A, B, C or D. The conditions were so variable but I’m so happy.
“We may have less fuel than the guys behind us but it’s better to be at the front than in the middle of the pack.”
With title rivals Button and Vettel so far back, Barrichello added: “I’ve kept my cool and I’ve stayed honest.
“The team have done fantastically well to prepare the car the way I wanted and now I can’t wait for the race, although I’m not sure how much sleep I will get.”
It was a pulsating end to what may well be the longest qualifying session in F1 history as it lasted two hours and 41 minutes.
It took just four minutes and seven seconds of that for the first red flag to appear, albeit courtesy of a relatively innocuous incident.
Giancarlo Fisichella stalled his Ferrari in the middle of the track after spinning coming out of the downhill Senna S where a river was virtually flowing.
Embarrassingly for Fisichella, the marshals were forced to push the stricken car off the circuit and onto the grass where a crane was deployed to lift it out of the way.
Although there was no damage, under the regulations it meant the 36 -year-old, who starts last, was allowed to play no further part in a session that was held up for 14 minutes as conditions worsened.
Despite that, the weather continued to play havoc, with Vettel and reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton the biggest casualties from Q1.
Initially, as the rain eased the times tumbled as the drivers were able to remain out on the circuit with their wet-weather tyres.
But then with about five minutes of the 20 remaining, the intensity increased and the times slowed at a point when Hamilton and Vettel had dropped into the bottom five.
Hamilton tried a change of tyres, only to slide off track at turn five where Romain Grosjean had put his Renault into a barrier in final practice earlier today.
Although Hamilton continued, it was only to return to the pits and he will start 18th, one place ahead of Nick Heidfeld in his BMW Sauber, and one behind McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.
Hamilton said: “The conditions were awful, but, wow, our car was terrible. Pretty poor performance from us.
“We couldn’t even go flat-out on the straights. That’s how bad it was. We didn’t have a wet weather set-up, which probably contributed to it.”
As for Vettel, he twice tried to put in quick laps at the end of Q1, only to be held up by slow traffic in the chaotic conditions.
Vettel, who needs to finish in the top two to have any chance of keeping his hopes alive going into the final race, said: “I think I went to the pool, not the racetrack!
“Obviously it’s extremely disappointing. That’s life.
“There was a window where the circuit was quickest and we couldn’t use it. We were struggling with traffic.
“When we had clean air, it started to rain more heavily. It’s a shame, but we will go out with the knife between our teeth.”
The extreme conditions then caused a 17-minute delay of Q2 that was red flagged for a second time by Liuzzi’s smash at the end of the pit straight.
The Italian spun into the pit wall before sliding backwards into a tyre barrier at the top of the Senna S, losing three wheels in the process, admitting he “lost control in the middle of the straight in a big puddle.”
But again the remarkable crash structure of the monocoque allowed Liuzzi, who starts 15th, to climb out of his battered car unharmed.
Then came the lengthy delay and four separate track inspections by the safety car before Q2 finally resumed, one that cost Button.
Ahead of him in 11th, 12th and 13th are three drivers he will expect to quickly take care of in Toyota debutant Kamui Kobayashi, Jaime Alguersuari in his Toro Rosso and Grosjean.
Sebastien Buemi is a career-high sixth, Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima are in seventh and ninth for Williams, sandwiching BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica, with Fernando Alonso 10th for Renault.
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