Gearbox problems put Barrichello in trouble
Ferrari’s return to the front of the grid came at a cost today, with mechanical problems hampering Rubens Barrichello.
While Michael Schumacher will start from the front row for just the second time this season, team-mate Barrichello will line up at the back after aborting his qualifying attempt.
Barrichello was poised to begin his flying lap when a puff of smoke from the back of his Ferrari signalled a gearbox problem and forced him to dive into the pits and park his stricken car.
Schumacher had just emerged from his cockpit after qualifying second and immediately inspected the damage, discovering a similar problem to that which restricted his running in practice this morning.
Barrichello, who also suffered gearbox problems on his car in Bahrain, expects a tough race from the back of the grid.
He said: “All I can say is that I am very disappointed. My car had a gearbox problem towards the end of my out lap, and I had to come back to the pits.
“It’s a real shame, because I think I could have done well this afternoon. Now I can expect to have to fight my way up the order in the race. It will be very tough – but as always I will give it my all.”
Ferrari managing director Jean Todt promised an immediate investigation into their second gearbox failure in just a few hours.
The Frenchman said: “Michael suffered a failure at the end of the morning session. Now we have to analyse what happened to see if they both had the same fault or if they were two different problems.
“Starting from the back of the grid, Rubens has a difficult afternoon in prospect. But he has shown at other times this year that he is capable of making the best of this type of situation.”
Barrichello is not the only driver to face an uphill task tomorrow in the race, with fellow veteran David Coulthard also preparing for a tough day’s work.
The Red Bull driver, who along with team-mate Christian Klien has struggled for pace this weekend, starts from 12th place tomorrow and has his fingers crossed for the kind of first-corner melee which elevated him to fourth two weeks ago in Germany.
“As you can see from the lap times, we’re struggling on this circuit,” the Scotsman said.
“We don’t seem to have the top speeds on the straights here or the same speed through turns compared to where we normally are, but it’s one of those things.
“The car feels similar to how it did in Germany, and we posted a good result there. Maybe we can hope for another incident such as the one on the first corner in Nurburgring. We’ll just have to see how things turn out tomorrow.”
