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Not so fast Barrichello halts Williams' dominance with British GP polePosted: Saturday July 19, 2003 10:45 AM
Barrichello, timed 1 minute 21.209 seconds in Saturday's qualifying on the 5.141-kilometer (3.195-mile) Silverstone circuit, briefly stopped the recent Williams-BMW dominance and improved his chances for his first win of the season. It was the second pole position this year for Barrichello after the Brazilian Grand Prix in April. He now has eight in his career. Michael Schumacher made a rare mistake in the second half of his lap. After going through the first sector slightly faster than Barrichello, he went wide on a turn, ran into the grass briefly and was nearly a half-second down at the second sector. He finished with 1:21.867 for fifth, just behind his brother Ralf. "I am a little disappointed. It's too bad that you can have a good start position and then go off in the grass," said Schumacher, who started last after posting the fastest time in Friday's pre-qualifying. "Of course driving on the grass is not good for traction." "Fifth place is not the end of the world although it will make my life more difficult," he said. "From fifth position you can still win the race." Almost an hour before Schumacher did his lap, Barrichello started second in his Ferrari after sliding off the track in Friday's pre-qualifying and not recording a time. In qualifying, he set a time for the rest of the field to go for and held on to his lead until the end of the session as no one could beat it. The Brazilian said he had different feelings watching his teammate on his final run. "It was a bit of mixed emotions," Barrichello said. "You tend to say `Don't beat me,' but `Go Well' because it is a team spirit." Barrichello said he felt a bit of pressure starting early. He is usually one of the last to go out on Saturday. "The only disadvantage was a little bit of pressure from yesterday. We tried something completely new for that lap which taught me it didn't work," Barrichello said. "We started from a different route this morning. "It was a little bit more pressure in not being one of the first guys out and you cannot make the same mistakes. "At the end of the day you have to be 100 percent committed and forget about it but there still is pressure." Barrichello thinks Ferraris are in a good position to stop BMW-Williams' dominance at Silverstone. "Everything on the car is better than it was last race. We brought so many new items to this racing track. it is going very well," Barrichello said. Ferrari has lost three of the last four races to Williams. Jarno Trulli was second in qualifying in 1:21.381, followed by McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, who trails Michael Schumacher in the season standings by eight points. Raikkonen, who made a slight mistake in pre-qualifying which cost him time and put him in an earlier starting position, did 1:21.695. Trulli was not expecting to be near the top. "It's good to be second. Unexpected," Trulli said "But it is the best way to thank the people working on the team." Ralf Schumacher did 1:21.727 for fourth place on the grid. The Williams-BMW driver had taken three of the last four poles before this race. His teammate Juan Pablo Montoya was back in seventh with 1:22.214. "I believe we are well prepared for the race even though my qualifying result wasn't excellent mainly due to the fact that I was struggling with the balance of my car," Ralf Schumacher said. "Ferrari has again proved to be very strong here but nevertheless Michael is starting behind me on the grid." Ralf Schumacher is currently third in the driver standings with 53 points after two victories, second and fourth in the last four races. Montoya has been second to his teammate in the last two races as the team has dominated Formula One racing since the end of May. Under the new qualifying rules all the drivers have just one lap to set a time and go in reverse order from Friday. They cannot change tires or add fuel to the cars until the race starts. The weather was sunny throughout the session although rain was forecast later in the day and for Sunday's 60-lap race. Michael Schumacher won the British race last year in wet conditions with Barrichello second despite starting from the back of the starting grid after stalling just before the formation lap.
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