After fearing he was out of job for most of the winter, either being replaced by up and coming driver Bruno Senna, or because the team couldn’t survive, Rubens Barrichello’s career was given a new boost yesterday when he crossed the line in a very impressive second place for the Brawn GP team.

Playing his part in the team’s historic one two finish in Albert Park, Rubens ensured his seventeenth season in the pinnacle of Motorsports was definitely off to a good start. Here he speaks to the press about the race and his weekend overall…

Rubens, backing up the team performance with a brilliant second place proving the car is not only quick but also incredibly strong.

It is strong, very strong. I was hit from behind and I hit someone in front. It was a tough race and as Jenson just said, it wasn’t an easy race, but for me I never thought I could finish on the podium after the start. I hit anti-stall, so the car went into neutral. I recovered quite quickly but then I lost a lot of pace compared to people and I was hit from behind from a McLaren and that put me sideways and I hit someone really hard. I thought the car was done from that crash but I survived quite well, but on my first stint my nose was falling apart and I lost the braking stability when I hit Kimi as well. He closed the door and I couldn’t avoid him. I had a lot of mixed emotions during the race, but it was fantastic. I started second but could only hope for one better but after the start I am delighted to be here with the second place.

Rubens, you said that you started second. Explain what happened at the start.

Well, revs are on and my car moved and stopped and that’s when I hit anti-stall. Anti-stall is a protection from the engine that you have. You jump into neutral if you don’t have the right revs. I went on the inside but the McLaren, I don’t know who, I hit it really fast on my back and then I hit the other car which was a Red Bull or Toro Rosso. It was a fairly big hit and I thought my race was over, but one thing we can say is that with the crash if people think that our car is only good because of the diffuser, well, that big hit from behind broke the diffuser completely. The car was very strong after that. It didn’t have a fantastic pace as the temperature dropped but it had a pace, so still a good car after all.

Rubens, well done to you too. Again, I’m sure you couldn’t have imagined this result.

Well, after putting the car into second place yesterday I was hoping that we could finish first and second but right after the start, like a milli-second after the start, I never really thought we could have imagined to finish first and second. It was a tough afternoon but I had a lot of adventure there. There was a lot of overtaking. I think I kept some of the guys awake in Brazil. It was three o’ clock in the morning, so I think they had reasons to keep awake. I’m pleased. My afternoon was great in a difficult car, let’s put it that way, because some of the bits were broken. We could see a drop in performance in terms of aerodynamics, when I was hit from behind by the McLaren, and then I hit someone on the side because of that. I had to change the nose, I had a difficult pit stop as well. There was no one to blame. We had 1500 kilometers (testing) each, one day for the mechanics to get used to things. They didn’t have a lot of sleep before they came here, so it’s all a dream really, to say that we finished first and second for a new team. It was funny to see Ross that way, not even at Ferrari did I see him like that. It looked like it was his first win, so it was really amazing.

What about that very late second stop? It really was right at the end.

Yeah, I think the team was trying to capitalise on the problems that we went through and made it as long as possible. We knew that the softer of the two tyres could have some graining issues, so with the small problems that I had driving the car, I was very happy to keep the pace with the guys in front on three stops. And then I had a fantastic car when I put on the softer tyres, even though there were some bits missing it was a good car to drive. But I was looking after it and all of a sudden I heard on the radio ‘crash, crash, crash. Be careful.’ And then I saw the two cars going off the track and it gave me second position which was great.

Rubens, what happened at the start?

I hit the anti-stall. I don’t know why. I have to go through the data-logging to see what happened but basically when the car first moved, it hit anti-stall and then it was into neutral and so I had to recover and get the clutch back on and go. When you do that, you use a lot of throttle and there was a lot of wheelspin, so I lost a lot. And then you saw that I got to the first corner and I went on the inside of someone - I could definitely manage to stop, I wasn’t going to hit anyone – and the McLaren came up far too fast behind me and threw me into the side of a Red Bull, and as I said before, I thought that that was it for the race. Fortunately the car is very strong and kept me going.

Do you think that now you’ve driven in a race, that the new rules are helping overtaking or does it not change much?

I don’t know if I can answer this question right now. I would like to wait for Malaysia to answer that a little bit more, because this race was a bit strange. We’ve raced at five o’ clock, difficult visibility and the tyre temperatures were dropping. Because of that, people had different sorts of balance in the race. At one point, I thought I could overtake, it didn’t matter if I had the wings to play with or anything, so it didn’t seem to be easier but I think people did have problems, some more than others, with tyres temperatures, so I would like to wait until Malaysia to fully answer the question.

Do you think the FIA can change the result of this race; what do you think about that?

RB: Obviously it’s in the hands of the FIA to decide what to do but the FIA already checked the cars and already said that the cars were legal, so I’m not expecting anything different.