Mika Speechless With Relief

Mika Hakkinen was lost for the words to describe his feelings after lifting a first world crown at Suzuka.

(I don't even know where to start to say what I'm feeling right now,) the Finn told the post-race press conference. (It's taken us quite a long time at McLaren to reach this position, and when that happens you look back at what we've done together, and the hard work done by the designers, the mechanics, the marketing people and the rest of the team.)


Hakkinen's task was eased by title rival Michael Schumacher's misfortune in stalling at the second start, and the Finn was quick to acknowledge this. (When Michael was forced to start from the back of the grid, it raised an enormous amount of pressure from me,) he revealed, (The pressure was on me after my performance in the warm-up but, in the race, I calmed down a lot, and it was quite easy to control the situation.)


Hakkinen's only challenge came from Schumacher's Ferrari team-mate Eddie Irvine. The Irishman made a flying start to pass David Coulthard at the start and, for several laps, posed a real threat to the leader's position. However, fading tyres forced Irvine to back off and this allowed Hakkinen to establish a race-winning advantage.


(The race was not as difficult as others I've had this season. But a lot of that was down to the team telling me where Eddie was, where Michael was and what David was doing,) Hakkinen admitted, (When you are leading like I was, you start nearly whistling in the car, and your mind starts thinking about other things than driving. Ron [Dennis] was on the radio a couple of times, just reminding me to keep my head cool.)