Barrichello races into the points from 17th (Spanish GP team-by-team)

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Barrichello overtook Hulkenberg on lap one

Despite starting four places behind team mate Nico Hulkenberg, Rubens Barrichello caught and passed his team mate on the first lap of the race.

From there F1’s longest-serving driver used all his experience to bring the FW32 home in the points.

Rubens BarrichelloNico Hulkenberg
Qualifying position1713
Qualifying time comparison (Q1)1’23.125 (+0.268)1’22.857
Race position916
Average race lap1’28.683 (-1.075)1’29.758
Laps65/6664/66
Pit stops12
Spanish Grand Prix lap times: Williams (click to enlarge)

Rubens Barrichello

Barrichello blamed traffic after failing to reach Q2 in qualifying on Saturday:

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a clear run during any of my outings; I just kept getting caught out by traffic. It’s going to happen to everyone at some stage this season; it was obviously just my turn today. It’s disappointing because I thought we had a shot at Q3 this afternoon. I was also carrying some car damage from stones thrown up by other cars which we will have to fix tonight.
Rubens Barrichello

Having made it to 12th on lap one, Barrichello picked up two more places through his pit stop and Lewis Hamilton’s retirement elevated him to ninth.

Having taken a lot of life out of his tyre, Barrichello reduced his pace considerably in the final six laps to guarantee his third points finish of the year.

Compare Rubens Barrichello’s form against his team mate in 2010

Nico Hulkenberg

Hulkenberg was unhappy to stay 13th at the start of the race having been passed by his team mate:

I don’t understand why yet, but I always felt like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time going into the corners in the first lap. After the first stop, I went offline and damaged the car which resulted in a lot less downforce. From there, it became a very difficult race for me.
Nico Hulkenberg

Before damaging his car Hulkenberg’s pace was a match for Barrichello’s, staying within one second of the other FW32.

Compare Nico Hulkenberg’s form against his team mate in 2010

2010 Spanish Grand Prix

    Browse all 2010 Spanish Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    19 comments on “Barrichello races into the points from 17th (Spanish GP team-by-team)”

    1. I really didn’t expect Rubens to finish in the points after the poor qualifying, but his first lap really made the difference between finishing in the points and struggleing in the middle of the pack. As for Hulkenberg, the strategi wasn’t the right one.

    2. great result for Rubens. But I’m more interested in the infighting that seems to be springing up in the Williams camp.

      Maybe this will be the catalyst for a cleanout and rebuild of the team, as a life-long Williams fan I think they need it because its all going pear-shaped at the moment.

      The CEO Adam Parr seems like a very capable guy (he seems to have done a great job since he came in), I don’t know how much power he has in that regards but if he is able to or is given the opportunity I think he could really get the personnel mix sorted.

      1. damonsmedley
        11th May 2010, 8:17

        Yeah does anybody know what is happening there? Sam Michael and some guy with long hair were fighting in the race!

        1. it was happening during quali too apparently, Sam was going off at a few people. But thats just a manifestation of some pretty big infighting apparently. Reports are things are not at all well inside Williams at the moment.

    3. Rubens gets a lot of bad comments towards him, but you have to admit, when it’s his day, he can work magic.

      He is one of my favourite drivers, Mainly because F1 is his life, I dislike driver like Kimi who don’t really care about the sport.

    4. Didn’t realise Barrichello all race. Good for him, lucky to get into points, but nevertheless, deserved luck.

    5. Prisoner Monkeys
      10th May 2010, 10:07

      I’m afraid Nico Hulkenberg is shaping up as the next Romain Grosjean. The Chinese Grand Prix has been the only race where he has finished in a higher position to which he started. Williams seem to rate him highly, but given their season so far, Williams are hardly worthy of being rated at all.

      I’m at a loss to explain The Hulk’s lack of form, though. Grosjean’s problem was that he just couldn’t thrive in the limelight and subsequently fell apart when under pressure. But unlike Grosjean, Hulkenberg isn’t miles behind a highly-rated team-mate, and nor is he managing to spin under his own power at every avenue. He’s just … slow, but even that has no good explanation. He bested Petrov in GP2, but the two drivers were reasonably equal for most of the season. Yet the Russian doesn’t just have the upper hand, he’s fought for points in every race where Hukenberg only managed to cling on for a single point in Malaysia. Hulkenberg is just, well, static.

      Sir Frank isn’t going to be around forever, and the talk of Volkswagen’s involvement suggests he’s looking to retire soon. I’m sure he’s looking to go out on a high, but from Williams’ consistently inconsistent run of seasons since 2004, I think it’s pretty safe to extrapolate that there is something fundamentally – and possibly fatally – flawed at Grove.

      1. I think you have to allow for rookies making a number of mistakes at the beginning of their time in F1 – it’s such a big step up, even for a GP2 champion.

        Hülkenberg has made those mistakes but there are signs of better performances from him and we saw some of those this weekend – in qualifying and in the first stint of the race.

        1. Prisoner Monkeys
          10th May 2010, 10:50

          Mistakes, yes … but the reigning GP2 champion is a bit like the Dux of the school before going into primary school: a little bit more is expected of them. Especially since the last first-time-out GP2 champion was Lewis Hamilton.

          1. Yeah but Hamilton had a great car and could benefit from the experience and the set-up from Fernando Alonso, one of the all-time greatest drivers. That Williams is a terrible car so the expectations maybe high, but Hülkenberg is only human. You can’t expect him to get poles and wins whilst he’s trying to ride a flinstones-car among F1 cars.

            Besides, in GP2 he was struggling too in the first few races. Barrichello is a good driver too, he has 18 seasons of experience and he’s not making that many errors. That being said, Hülkenberg was already quicker than Barrichello in 2 out of 5 qualifying sessions and he couldn’t do anything in this race. If I recall correctly there was a problem with his car ánd he had a wrong strategy..

            Give the poor guy some time. Grosjean’s fate was very unfortunate, he’s definetly a talented driver, though not like the Hulk!

      2. Well, for starters, I think Barrichello actually started in 18th place.

        As for Williams, Barrichello has said (basically) that the wind tunnel calibration is wrong ie. the results in the wind tunnel don’t match the results on track. Sounds very Honda-esque, doesn’t it?

        And to reply to your theory, pm – do you still think you’re watching GP2? Renault has a much better car than Williams at the moment, so to compare the two (Hulk and Petrov) now is naive at best. Hulkenberg is having his share of issues, yes, but it’s a fair leap to claim he’s a Grosjean, or even that Grosjean is a Grosjean. I seem to remember a young bloke named Alonso sticking it into a wall at the turn 5 exit during his first weekend at a grand prix, and he did something after that, didn’t he?

        1. Barrichello was promoted to 17th because Petrov was handed a grid penalty.

    6. Sorry Keith, I can’t agree with you there, there have been a huge number of drivers that were great in lower formula but that were just hopeless or just very average in F1 and the Hulk seems to be shaping up to be another of them. The ones who really make it, the Hamiltons and Allonso’s of this world as opposed to the normal mid field runners, always show some flash of brilliance in at least one of their first few races. I haven’t seen that with the hulk. Still if you don’t try someone then you never know, but if he doesn’t start to shine in the next couple of races I hope that Williams look to another young star, rather than just keep plodding on.

    7. Well spotted and nice tribute.

      Rubens has always been good at coming from the back right from the start of his F1 career. Good overtaker, good charger and a good result.

      (there’s a reason why he’s in my FB fantasy team (where you also get points for positions gained)!

      1. So you are saying, the Williams is to his liking, enabling him to do what he is good at!

        I hope Rubens sees it as positively as you do :D

    8. Good to see Rubens working some magic with what seems to be a dog of a car!

      Also nice considering the bad rep he tends to get at times and all the talk that Hulk would demolish him….just shows the old dogs still got plenty of tricks haha

      IMO, Barrichello is one of the drivers on that grid who really deserves a WDC, but just hasent managed it through one thing or another. You can tell F1 really is a big part of him when things don’t go his way in a race with his discussions with the media after.

      1. barichello’s chance was last year. he just didn’t quite have enough pace. ok, he had a few bits of bad luck at the starts (though the fact that he’s done the same thing already this year at Williams does suggest it’s not just a car malfunction), and the cumulative effect of a couple of mis-timed pieces of bad luck can be huge. but ultimately, he’s never been fast enough. world champions are capable of blowing people away, and i think every single world champion has had that ability. barrichello never did.

    9. The past days of glory slowly but surely fades away for Williams. In reality they have not been a true top team since since Adrian Newey left. They where flattered by BMW engines for a few years but BMW gave up on them in the end.
      Think they would need to strike lucky and get an influx of bright young engineers to turn the situation around just as Force India has done.

    10. Barrichello had a great start to this race btw. Besides that he didn’t do anything special. He was coming from 17th to 12th, had a good pit stop and after that a few cars retired and he could get into the points. Obviously it’s well deserved, your car stays in one piece so you deserve to be in the points. But that Williams is remarkably slow! It might have something to do with Aerodynamics or with that Cosworth engine. Either way, they were team 7 I think, behind the top 4 + Renault and Force India, I think they have been passed by Sauber as well.

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