Rubens Barrichello says his chance of winning the Monaco Grand Prix disappeared when he failed to qualify on the front row.
Brazilian suffers with both tyres and seatbelts
Rubens Barrichello said both a failure to qualify on the front row and tyre problems during the race itself ended his chances of victory in the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Brazilian qualified third behind Brawn GP team-mate Jenson Button and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen but managed to get the jump on the latter at the start of Sunday's race.
However, looking to shadow Button, he suffered from tyre graining which, according to Barrichello, helped account for the Englishman's comfortable margin during the race.
"If you look back it defined the race yesterday because it is great momentum to have when you start from the front," said Barrichello, who led Button in the Spanish Grand Prix a fortnight ago before being overhauled.
"Once again, just like Barcelona I had a great start and was able to have a run on Kimi to take second. And then I ran tremendous pace. It was really, really good behind Jenson.
"But possibly I was just too close because losing that little bit of aero made me slide a little bit more and I grained the rear tyres.
"So from 1m16s, I started to run 1m20s and then Jenson gained 3-4s a lap, and that defined the race pretty much."
Moving around
Tyres were not Barrichello's only concern in the race, however, as he also revealed he had been struggling with his seatbelts for much of the 78-lap race.
"In the second stint my seatbelts got looser and looser and I could hear them going clank, clank," he added.
"So I had to start driving differently and switch the brakes to the front, because when you brake you are just moving around in the car and when you press the pedal you lock the rear wheels more. So I had a great time, really.
"It wasn't as easy as it looked from the outside, so I am proud of what we achieved today."
