Post-race press conference - Monaco GP - Pt.1.

Post-race press conference - Monaco GP.

Drivers: Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams), Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren), Michael Schumacher (Ferrari)

TV unilaterals

Q:
Juan Pablo, emotional scenes at the end there. Tell us about the pressure from Kimi during those closing stages...

Juan Pablo Montoya:
You know, the hardest pressure was when they told me I had to get a gap on Kimi before my stop because he was going longer than me. It was quite hard. I managed to pull away from two seconds to four and a half before I stopped but, then, when I managed to get a couple of laps into the stage until his stop, I still managed to get ahead of him, and then I just backed off a little bit and just paced myself. It was good. The car seemed to work really well. I want to thank all the mechanics. I think BMW and Williams did a fantastic job and the Michelin tyres behaved brilliantly all the day. It's really good. Everybody needed this. Ralf got the pole yesterday, I got the win today.

Q:
At the start, and indeed after the re-start behind the safety car, Ralf seemed to get away from you a little bit and then you hauled him back in again...

JPM:
Yeah, he seemed to. Before the start of the race, he decided to use higher pressures, he picked up the tyre pressures, and he was going to be quicker in the first few laps. I knew that, so I just based myself on that - after three laps, when the tyres came up, I was fine.

Q:
Kimi, you were on the front row but Juan Pablo got the jump on you into turn one there...

Kimi Raikkonen:
Yeah, I'm not very lucky with second place on the starting grid. I always seem to get bad starts. Okay, the race was a little bit just following Montoya to try to get past but, here, you don't have any chances to get past if they don't make any mistakes. I knew that I would run a little bit longer on the pit-stops but, on the first and second stops, I always had traffic when he went into the pits and that completely destroyed the chance to try to get past him.

Q:
Michael, it looks as if you started with between six and ten laps worth more fuel than McLaren and Williams. Do you think that was a great strategy given the car that you had today, or could your strategy have been different?

KR:
In the end, you always seem to be more clever. The fact is that, if I wouldn't have been stuck behind Trulli, I guess I could have kept the situation more close to Kimi, being out longer, then I would have probably managed to get him, but that meant that I had to have more fuel and this automatically means I would be behind Trulli, so, however you turn it, in the end, that's what we did and out of fifth position, finishing in third position is reasonable. We tried everything, but we have to say clearly that this weekend we probably weren't strong enough.

Q:
Juan Pablo, you've just won the Monaco Grand Prix, just try to describe your emotions and feelings right now.

JPM:
Really, you've got to say that I had quite a few races where I had a chance to win. The last one was Melbourne, I threw it away, so there was a bit of pressure not to basically make any mistakes. It was definitely worth waiting for. I won Monza and now this. It's fantastic. I'm so happy. It's just unreal.

Press conference:

Q:
Juan Pablo, this obviously means a huge amount to you, tell us about it...

JPM:
It does. It's been long waiting for my second win. The first one came in the first year. Last year, I had seven poles and none of them converted into wins. The car worked pretty well today, the car was good all weekend. The fight with Kimi was very good and I had to push as hard as I could to try to stay ahead of him, because he was going longer than me on every stop and I managed two stops to do that and then from there it was just to pace myself to the end.

Q:
What about the start, that was obviously important getting ahead of Kimi?

JPM:
Yeah, as soon as I let the button go I had great traction and just had the jump on Kimi straight away.

Q:
I understand you were fairly noisy on the radio at the end, what were you saying?

JPM:
Nothing really...I was just pretty excited.

Q:
What about at the end there, how much pressure was there?

JPM:
There was a fair bit because I backed up the pace quite a bit, but I didn't want Kimi to get too close so, on the last few laps, I started pushing and made a bit of a mistake - not on the last lap, but the lap before, in the last corner - but apart from that it went pretty smoothly.

Q:
Were the tyres good?

JPM:
Yeah, the tyres were really good, very consistent. They were coming back really strongly at the end of the stint. It was really good.

Q:
Kimi, what happened to you at the start?

KR:
It looks like it's not very good for me to start from the second place, because every time I have lost at least one place. But I don't know, I just didn't get the traction and lost one place, almost two, but I just managed to keep the Renault behind me.

Q:
Then what were the tactics towards the end when you were right on his tail?

KR:
I was just hoping that something would go wrong, or that he would make a big mistake, so that I was able to pass him. I knew that he wouldn't have too many problems to keep me behind, but I still tried to keep up some pressure. I was a bit unlucky with the pit-stops because, every time when he went in, I was stuck behind other cars and I wasn't able to push - but that's racing and maybe next time it will go better.

Q:
How about the car during the race, and the tyres?

KR:
It was great. I think, at the beginning of the race, I was a bit slower than them, because we started with very low pressures and these took a little while to come in. But, after that, it was really good and I think we got the quickest lap time in the race. I was quick, but just not at the right time.

Q:
How worried were you about the track conditions, starting on the front row, given that there was so much dust down from the previous races?

KR:
Yeah, I was pretty worried about it. I was watching the race when they put it down, and I think there was oil and liquid on every corner. It wasn't very good for us but actually it was okay - the circuit was fine and we didn't have any problems.

Q:
Michael, fifth to third, at least you made up a couple of places but even so I don't suppose it was what you were hoping for...

MS:
Yeah, you always hope for better but realistically, from how the race developed falling back with Jarno actually it is quite reasonable to end up third.

Q:
What about the car during the race - at times, you were perhaps a couple of seconds off the pace, but that probably had something to do with fuel, obviously...

MS:
Yeah, obviously the strategy was staggered differently to others, but I wouldn't say the situation was the greatest with my second set. I really struggled up to a certain point and then it got going but, at the end of the day, I think it would have been very difficult to jump another position.

Q:
Then at the end you were catching these two, what was going to be your tactics then?

MS:
See and wait. You never know what happens.

Q:
But, otherwise, obviously, six points. Not too bad...

MS:
Yep, that's the way you have to see it. We lose another two in terms of the championship, it is back to four, but it could have been worse.