Q: Rubens, welcome back to the podium after Melbourne, a great drive from you. You also had a three-stop strategy, tell me about the first corner, what did you see of the melee there?
Rubens Barrichello: Well, the first corner is a great one for overtaking but on the first lap it can be a mess. I was alongside Fernando and all of a sudden I was turning and I saw two cars cross, I think it was a Williams and somebody else, just crossing in front and I actually had to turn left before I turned right. I lost a lot in that confusion and it was a pity, but in the same way I was able to push my race from the beginning. I lost a lot, maybe 15 seconds or even more, but then I was able to push and although I had difficulties overtaking I was able to overtake and use my strategy very nicely.
Q: It looked as though you were enjoying yourself out there today, there was a lot of racing going on and the car proved reliable and relatively quick.
Rubens Barrichello: Yeah, the boys here and at the factory are doing a fantastic job to make up the time, really. It is very unfortunate that we have been out of the podium for a long time, the car is very reliable, the engine is good and the tyres are fantastic, it is just that we had a difficult time at some point into the season but we are coming back and I feel the Ferrari team will be very strong from now to the end of the year and we are going to be winning races hopefully soon.
Q: Rubens, your teammate was on a two-stop, presumably you were happy on three.
Rubens Barrichello: Well, I am definitely happy. I checked the car on Saturday morning, it was doing very well on old tyres but not so well on new tyres. So I had to take the gamble on going a little shorter to try to minimise the problems and just go for it. My set-up was really good on race pace but not so good on qualifying, so you pick up strategies - when you are not able to get pole position you just gamble with them. I was really good with the team to push the car to its maximum, even though I lost a lot of time. I just saw on TV the fact that there was a car that hit Fernando -- I was alongside it - and for a millisecond I didn't turn and the car hit me as well, so I actually had to turn left. I had a fantastic first lap, obviously I was fighting with the Jordans and BARs but I was able to go past one Jordan and one BAR at the same time so I had a lively weekend.
Q: And then you also overtook Button and Liuzzi.
Rubens Barrichello: Yeah, obviously I was lighter at that time and I was able to fight them, so it wasn't just a case of being good but I was in the right place at the right time and I was able to push. From there the car felt very good, I was able to get on with my race. Obviously towards the end, it felt a bit more difficult, a bit trickier, but by myself the car was doing fantastically. It was just getting close to someone the car started to slide a bit too much, so I lost two laps behind Villeneuve when he was receiving blue flags and maybe he didn't see them. I was losing time but I couldn't really get that close. I knew from that moment that if Nick had a problem with his tyres I would still be able to fight, otherwise I would have had to do something magic to overtake him. But having said that third place today is very good.
Q: What were the track conditions like, because quite a few people with good reputations slid off during the race?
Rubens Barrichello: There was quite good grip from our car, the tyres were behaving quite well, but off line, it was quite dirty and if you got to that, you could most definitely fall off.
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