Barrichello: I couldn't hold back the tears.

A couple of days after the British Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello is still savouring the sweet taste of a victory which has seemed a long way off after his trip into the gravel on the first day at Silverstone.

The victory, in a season where Ferrari team-mate and world champion Michael Schumacher has had the upper hand with the new F2003-GA, was as much a relief as a joy to the Brazilian.

"I said afterwards that I hoped this would end the criticism and it has, because some of those critics are now saying I'm a phenomenon!" he laughed, "I have to say it was only a minor irritation being criticised, because the important thing is that, within the Scuderia, no-one has ever doubted me, my ability or my motivation, and I have always had their full support. I just kept my cool after two bad races and did my job."

The cool gave way to emotion on the podium, where the tears returned.

"I won races last year but, after all these months without a win, I felt very emotional hearing the Brazilian national anthem and thinking of my family, who probably suffer more than me when I don't win or when things go wrong," Barrichello explained, "That reminded me of when my father sold his Fiat so I could carry on racing and, at that point, I could not hold back my tears."

The weekend appeared to have got off to a bad start for the Brazilian, as an engine failure was quickly compounded by an off in Friday qualifying that left him down at the 'wrong' end of the Saturday running order.

"For Friday qualifying, I tried a different tyre compound, as I had not had a chance to use it after the engine failure in the morning," he recalled, "It behaved differently and, combined with hitting that wet spot on the track, I was unlucky enough to spin. On Saturday morning, though, we had the car working fantastically, so I was very confident of doing well in final qualifying - even though I was the first [NB. he was actually second behind Justin Wilson] to run."

It did not escape Barrichello's notice that his first win in Germany in 2000 also featured a man running on the track, just as his last was interrupted by a religious protester with just twelve laps in the book.

"[In contrast to Germany], last weekend, the man on the track did not help, as my tyres were coming good and I had just passed [Kimi] Raikkonen," reckoned the Ferrari driver, "I never even knew why the safety car was out. At the pit-stop, it was one of the busiest pit-lanes I've ever seen and I lost six positions, but I had a good car and the Bridgestones were fantastic, so I kept overtaking people."

The British GP definitely had more overtaking moves than the rest of the season put together, and Rubens made his fair share of passes.

"Silverstone does allow you to overtake more than some other circuits, but the main thing was that my car was faster than the others, which allowed me to change line," he explained, "I also had very good traction after working on that throughout the weekend. I just had to force the cars to move to the inside or outside, and then I could get by. I watched the race later on television and enjoyed seeing all those moves!"

If the race was tough, however, it was nothing compared to Barrichello's efforts to try to leave England on Sunday night.

"There was some problem at London Airport and I was unable to leave until Monday morning - having spent the night at the airport," he reported, "I still haven't got my luggage yet!

"On top of that, someone crashed into my luggage trolley in the terminal, and my winner's trophy fell on the floor and got broken. It was so frustrating, because I really wanted to rush home and see my wife and son. The only thing that kept me sane that Sunday night was remembering that I had won the grand prix."