The Brazilian was unable to pass Irvine, who was being shown blue flags at the time, as quickly as his Williams rival and made his disapproval obvious to the Ulsterman once he had cleared his car.

Both have very differing opinions on what happened.

At the FIA Press Conference after the race journalists asked Barrichello about the incident. A statement from motor sport's governing body quoted him as replying: "He's the one that talks so much in briefings and then he holds me up for three quarters of a lap. He let Ralf by in a nice way, he could have let me by in the same place but then he came in and stayed in for another five or six corners so I just found it was silly, that's all.

However Irvine, who acted as Michael Schumacher's team mate at Ferrari before Barrichello, felt he acted fairly towards both drivers. His official website reported him as telling British newspaper the Sun: "He is just being over-emotional as usual.

"I had already let Ralf by and I looked in the mirror and saw Rubens coming and was quite prepared to do the same for him. I always race fairly and had nothing to gain in holding him up. But he didn't take the initiative. He should learn to count because it was only two corners later that I let him by."

Barrichello eventually went on to take second place, with R Schumacher finishing in third.