“It’s true that I did not have a very good start to the weekend over the Friday and Saturday in Monza, losing a lot of track time,” admitted Barrichello. “But I wasn’t too concerned, because the car had been excellent during the previous week’s test and when I was on track during the grand prix practice, I found it was just the same. So, I was always confident for qualifying, even though on Saturday morning I only did five laps with a low fuel load. This meant there was not much time to fine tune the car, but I was happy with it nevertheless.”

Barrichello won the race on an aggressive 2 stop strategy after qualifying in fourth place. This decision was not taken until after the Sunday warm-up session and Barrichello was keen to use the same strategy that so nearly won him this race last season. All that remained was for him to take care of the Williams early on in the race and that is what he did.

“The (warm-up) session showed that both a one and a two stop were possible for me,” said the Brazilian. “I think my choice of two stops was the best for me, especially remembering that I nearly won the race last year with that strategy. In the race, it was a matter of getting past the Williams, as we did not know how fast they would be and of course, that was easier with the light fuel load. They were fast at first, but as we picked up speed, their performance dropped off and that was down to the tyres. In that situation at the start, it is always a gamble to try and pass as it would be quite easy to lose the nose of the car or part of the front wing, when you have to be aggressive. I just waited for the right moment to attack and it came immediately. I made a good start and tried to overtake Montoya, but I couldn’t. Then when Ralf had his problems I managed to get past them both.”

Barrichello used his lighter fuel load to his advantage and he felt that his race was won in his first stint. With the car working well and the tyres able to maintain great consistency Rubens was able to put in fast lap after fast lap and it was this that kept him in front of Michael Schumacher.

“Once I was in front, it was very enjoyable, putting in a series of fastest laps,” he recalled. “The engineers had done a really excellent job during the test to set up the car nicely and it was making the best use of the tyres. I was very impressed with the tyre Bridgestone produced in such a short space of time. It was already good at the test, but not as good as the one they brought to the race and that meant I could push as hard as I wanted.”

Memories of last year never filtered into Barrichello’s thoughts as he pitted, after he lost out due to a slow first stop. And he just drove the best he could and hoped everything would be okay in his stops, and it was. The podium celebrations will live with the Brazilian for a long time to come, they say time flies when having fun and this was the case on the podium, Barrichello wanted the celebrations to never stop.

“Last year, I lost the race because of a problem with a pit stop,” commented the Brazilian. “But I never gave it any thought on Sunday. You start every race with a fresh mind and when it’s your day it’s your day! Seeing everyone from the podium was very emotional, except that I could not even hear the Brazilian National Anthem because the crowd made so much noise. Suddenly I realised we had already moved on to the Italian one. I felt as though I wanted to stay on the podium for another ten minutes. I didn’t want to leave.”

Celebrations at the track were brief for Rubens who had already booked his flight back home to Brazil. Rubens was welcome of the chance to return home and see his son after being away from home for about a month. His build up to USGP begins with a trip to Miami to catch up with some friends before he finally arrives in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Barrichello failed to finish here last season and he is hoping to make sure he does this time round.