Categories: Look backRace and classic pictures

Rubens victorious in first China GP

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On this day in 2004, Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello was victorious in the first Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai International Circuit. It was Barrichello's second win of the season, as he had won the previous race which was the team's home event at Monza, to the delight of the Tifosi.

Rubens had started from pole position with McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen alongside him on the front row. While Rubens was able to control the race and never looked in doubt for the victory, Raikkonen was leapfrogged during the afternoon by Jenson Button who picked up second place for BAR-Honda.

Here's Rubens enjoying his success on the podium with a champagne-soaked Luca di Montezemolo, then-president of Ferrari.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.