Saturday March 11th, 2000

Rubens Barrichello shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

The first Brazilian to race for Ferrari had just qualified fourth for Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

He was happy with the outcome, but disappointed not to have done better.

"I had too many interruptions, too many yellow flags and other things going wrong," he said. "I didn't get the best from the car.

"But it is a wonderful feeling for me to be driving one of those red cars in front of this crowd. I am very proud."

Barrichello, 27, joined Ferrari from Stewart at the end of last season as Briton Eddie Irvine went the other way.

As the first Brazilian at Maranello, he admitted he felt a lot of trepidation at first. "Now I am used to it," he said. "I feel very happy and very relaxed.

"But it was strange for me to go out in a Ferrari on Friday for the first time. I saw the crowd and I could see the Brazilian flags. It made me emotional.

"Today was different. It was qualifying. It was serious and I felt like a man at work again. Back to normal. I liked it and I feel very happy. I am looking forward to working for a long time in this team."

Barrichello's performance in taking fourth place with a time of one minute and 31.102 seconds left him just half a second off the pace set by pole-man Mika Hakkinen of Finland.

"We could have got pole, but it was not our day," he said. "The car felt good, very well-balanced and fast, but I was delayed by a yellow flag and then by a weight check. It wasn't our day."