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Rubens Barrichello - Source: Photosport -
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Brazilian Rubens Barrichello seized pole position on Sunday for
his home grand prix in a nightmare scenario for
championship-leading Brawn team mate Jenson Button.
Britain's Button, 14 points clear of the Sao Paulo driver with just
two races remaining, qualified only 14th in a marathon rain-delayed
qualifying session that ranked as one of Formula One's
longest.
The third man in the title battle, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, is
16 points behind Button and will start in 16th place after being
caught out by the weather.
Barrichello timed his first pole of the season, and first since the
2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, to perfection and is now well-placed to
take the title battle down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
The passionate local crowd, who had waited patiently through a rain
delay of more than an hour and a half at the bowl-like Interlagos
circuit, stood and roared in delight with cheers of 'Rubinho,
Rubinho'.
Australian Mark Webber will share the front row with Barrichello in
his Red Bull, who must finish one-two on Monday to have any hope of
preventing Brawn from winning the constructors' title.
Vettel Defiant
"I'm keeping my feet on the ground because we have won nothing
yet," said Barrichello, who has never won his home race despite
twice previously starting on pole.
"I'm not watching what's going on on the side, just focusing. I
will race as fast as I can to win the race and when its finished
I'll get on the radio to see what happened to Jenson and
Sebastian," added the 37-year-old.
Despite his speed, Barrichello only just made it through to the
final phase of qualifying in 10th place while Button failed
altogether and will line up in a risky position alongside Renault's
error-prone rookie Romain Grosjean.
"(At) the start of the session, we had way too much understeer and
I couldn't do anything with it and then on lap three, the rear
started going away," Button told the BBC.
"We made a mistake not putting inters (intermediate tyres) on at
the end. It's all of our decision, it's a team effort."
Vettel must finish second to stay in the hunt but he refused to
give up his title hopes, vowing to race on Sunday "with the knife
between our teeth".
"I think I went to the pool not the racetrack today. Obviously it's
extremely disappointing. That's life," the 22-year-old German
said.
Force India's Adrian Sutil qualified third with Italian Jarno
Trulli fourth for Toyota. They will have Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen
and Toro Rosso's Swiss rookie Sebastien Buemi behind them on the
third row.
Outgoing Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren team
mate Heikki Kovalainen also failed to make it through the opening
session, with the Briton qualifying 18th.
"The conditions were awful but, wow, our car was terrible," said
Hamilton.
The first phase of qualifying was halted after four minutes when
Italian Giancarlo Fisichella spun and stalled his Ferrari, with the
car having to be lifted off the track with a crane. There was a
14-minute delay before qualifying resumed.
The start of the second phase was also delayed by heavy rain and,
once it had started, stopped after two and a half minutes when
Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi crashed heavily at the end of the
pit straight.
The impact, with the car hitting the tyre wall backwards, ripped
both the rear wheels off but the Italian clambered out unhurt and
waved to the crowd.
Brazilian Grand Prix provisional qualifying result
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