 Barrichello on Pole in Rainy Qualifying - Australia Saturday March 2nd, 2002 by Timothy Collings
Both men broke all previous records at Albert Park in a rain-hit, but intriguing, qualifying session, littered with incidents - including the luckless Japanese debutant Takuma Sato's failure to clock a qualifying lap within 107 per cent of the pole, after a gearbox problem prevented him lapping before the deluge. In the end, the weather and not the drivers or the spectators was the winner as the Australian event suffered its first wet qualifying session in seven years in Melbourne. If it was a sad day for Sato, whose Jordan-Honda team sent him out in teammate Giancarlo Fisichella's car in the wet in a vain bid to record a qualifying time, it was a memorable one for Brazilian Barrichello. He registered the fourth pole position of his career in preparation for his 148th Formula One race, with a lap record time of 1:25.843. Strangely, it was also the third time he had won pole in similar wet conditions. Barrichello and Schumacher traded record fastest lap times. In the end, when the weather made certain that there would be no further improved times, Barrichello wound up five-thousandths of a second ahead of his teammate Schumacher, who is seeking to become the first driver to complete a hat-trick of victories in Melbourne. Barrichello's pole and Schumacher's 2nd place also meant that, for the second successive year, Ferrari filled the front row and that for the seventh consecutive year the race will start with both teammates on the front row. In the past, the Williams and McLaren teams have dominated qualifying in the same way as Ferrari did in the dismal conditions this time. The only difference is that it is Barrichello and not Schumacher in the prime starting position. The Italian team were four-tenths of a second clear of their nearest rival, Schumacher's younger brother Ralf, in the leading Williams-BMW. He was third, ahead of the two McLaren-Mercedes of David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen. Ralf Schumacher's Williams teammate Juan-Pablo Montoya was sixth. These were the lucky ones, as many drivers were caught out by the early red flag-enforced eight-minutes stoppage when Sato stopped on his installation lap, after only four minutes, and later when the rain came down. Among the frustrated men was Coulthard, who had an early lap spoiled when he spun to avoid a collision with Jacques Villeneuve in his BAR-Honda; and Montoya, whose efforts were curtailed by the rain. Barrichello was fastest from the early part of the session and had to improve his time after Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher had taken the initiative from him. In the end, all of the top four drivers clocked times inside last year's pole - a sure sign that this year's season-opener is going to be a fast and thrilling tussle for glory - and the weather forecast for tomorrow, thankfully, predicts warm sunshine.
Published at 03:08:31 GMT
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It was all deją vu, with a subtle difference, at Albert Park on Saturday as Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher secured an all-Ferrari front row on the grid for Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
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