FERRARI PARTY AT MONZA: BARRICHELLO WINS
by Maximiliano Catania/FUNO
Buenos Aires (AR), 14 Sep 2004

Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari F2004-EF) clinched his first win of the 2004 season (8th victory of his career) by winning the Italian Grand Prix, held at the mythical Monza Circuit. The Brazilian driver was escorted by multi-champion Michael Schumacher, a fact that helped to build the best scenario for the Scuderia Ferrari party. Although a fair start (Schumi spun off at the third corner and Rubinho lost his gap advantage on the first quarter of race due to a wrong selection of tyres), the red cars had a strong bouncing-back since the second half of GP to lead at will. They also were favoured by the early retirement of Kimi Räikkönen (McLaren-Mercedes) and the out-of-track of Fernando Alonso (Renault). Jenson Button (BAR-Honda), however, kept a steady pace to be on the podium (3rd). It is worth to be remarked the quick, right action of firemen to extinguish fire from Gianmaria Bruni's Minardi-Cosworth, while the Italian driver was pitting.