Zoom Barrichello holds off for points in Montreal

Honda picked up two more World Championship points this afternoon when Rubens Barrichello finished seventh in a dramatic Canadian Grand Prix. Jenson Button, who started the 70-lap race from the pitlane, came home in 11th place.

Barrichello drove a tenacious race from start-to-finish. After starting ninth, his track position was helped on lap 17 by the deployment of the safety car, which resulted in the front-runners pitting and then crashing into each other at the exit of the pitlane. Barrichello stayed out and ran second to Heidfeld, before leading the race for seven laps ahead of his only pitstop of the race on lap 36.

Once the race had settled down, Barrichello was running fourth when battling with a lack of grip which caused him to run wide going into turn four on lap 59. This enabled Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli to squeeze through, dropping him to sixth. Barrichello battled hard to defend his position in the remaining 11 laps and whilst Felipe Massa got by, he managed to keep Vettel at bay to cross the line in seventh position.

Button meanwhile, faced an uphill struggle from the pitlane. He ended the opening lap in 20th place, before battling his way up to seventh position prior to making his final pitstop on lap 53. He rejoined in 11th place where he remained for the duration of the race.

Rubens Barrichello
“I’m pleased with the two points today, particularly as we thought our chances of a points finish were slim when we started the weekend. It was a very tough race and I have not been feeling well since yesterday due to a cold, which made it an even tougher physical challenge. We were running well on the prime tyre for the first part of the race and the safety car certainly helped to improve our track position. Unfortunately when we switched to the option tyre after my one and only stop and with a heavy fuel load, I was really struggling with a lack of grip. I went off the track on the marbles and lost a couple of positions at turns three and four, which is a shame. Yesterday I didn’t know if I was going to be well enough to race, so all things considered we did a good job today and I'm pleased to keep up the points scoring momentum from Monaco."

Jenson Button
"It was a very tough and ultimately disappointing race today. It's always difficult starting from the back of the grid and we were using a set-up that we hadn't run previously this weekend. Things didn't quite go our way with the strategy and safety car which meant I was unable to make any progress up the field by the end of the race. We need to get our heads down now and work hard to make improvements before France to ensure that we are more competitive there."