Saturday: A mixed result for Brawn GP drivers

The Brawn GP drivers, Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, are separated by nine cars on the starting grid of the Belgian Grand Prix after different qualifying sessions at Spa-Francorchamps this Saturday.

Barrichello and his fourth victory in Valencia keep him motivated to achieve good results, as shown by this fourth place during the strange qualifications in Belgium, while the championship leader, Button, will start only fourteenth, the first time the Briton does not participate in Q3 this season.

Rubens Barrichello – 16th and 4th:

« I am extremely satisfied with our qualifying performances today, and the second row of the grid is an ideal starting position for the race. Today’s results must be one of the biggest surprises of the year and it’s great for Giancarlo Fisichella to be up there on pole. It’s good to see that the veterans are still there! I got the best out of my car today, especially during Q2, which was one of my best laps at Spa, but it only gave the sixth position in this session. We were very aggressive with the strategy and tomorrow’s race is open, so I will push as much as I can to get a good result here.

Jenson Button – 10th and 14th :

« I didn’t expect to qualify in 14th position today, but we really struggled with grip, especially on the soft tires. The car didn’t feel right from the start of the weekend and unfortunately, I couldn’t get better performance today. Rubens and I are usually very closely matched, but he was quick on the hard tires, and I wasn’t, so we need to look into the reasons for that. I couldn’t find grip with the soft tires, making the rear feel unstable, so I had no confidence in the braking, especially in the middle sector. It’s strange given that our setups are different, but not by much. It’s going to be very tough for the race, but at least we have more time to choose our strategy. We need to get things right and see if we can score some points tomorrow. »

Ross Brawn – Team Principal:

It was a very difficult qualifying hour today, and the final result saw one of the most mixed grids of the season, which is excellent for the sport, likely allowing for an extremely interesting race tomorrow. Rubens delivered a very good performance today and the fourth place on the grid, with an aggressive strategy, puts him in a good position for tomorrow’s race. It is fair to say that qualifying slipped away from us a little bit today with Jenson. We had to struggle with the car on his side this weekend and although some modifications were made overnight, we were not able to get the car to a place where he felt comfortable. Looking on the positive side, our main championship rivals are behind one of our cars, and only a few places ahead of the other. We focused on our race performance during practice here and hope we have the pace to take the fight to them tomorrow.