Barrichello delighted with 12th

Rubens Barrichello believes Williams can make it into the points in the Brazilian Grand Prix after he battled through to 12th on the grid at Interlagos.

“I feel great! I’m so glad that I put in a good lap because I have lots of family here this weekend,” said the veteran, who will line up beside Force India’s Paul Di Resta and just ahead of the Toro Rossos of Jaime Alguersuari and Sébastien Buemi.

“Also for the team and for the fans, it really felt like they were pushing me on which was an amazing feeling. I have to drive 71 laps like that tomorrow but we have the best chance now so let’s hope for a good one!”

Barrichello’s team-mate Pastor Maldonado had a tougher session. The Venezuelan looked like scraping through to Q2 but was bounced out by Buemi at end of the first session.

“We’re a bit on the back foot with P18,” said Maldonado. “We didn’t find the best balance on the option tyre and so didn’t get a clean lap in. I will need to make up lots of ground in the race but after doing that in Abu Dhabi, I’m optimistic I can do it again here.”

Williams’ Chief Operations Engineer Mark Gillan added: “Going into qualifying, the threat of rain increased, pushing us to run earlier than we normally would have done. Rubens progressed into Q2 but unfortunately Pastor didn’t get a clean lap and finished P18. Rubens had a good, clean lap on his new set of soft tyres in Q2 to finish a credible P12.”