August 26, 2004
The top 3 finishers in Hungary - Elencevski, Jakonen & Ryong - provide their thoughts on a tough race at the Hungaroring.

Winner - Steve Elencevski (FinOz - Ferrari (c))

Fantastic result Steve, flag to flag! How did it go?

Yes, a great result for myself & the team. The car felt pretty good throughout the race, especially on new tyres, but towards the end of stints it was oversteering a lot & sliding around everywhere. I also had lots of backmarker's to overtake & it actually seemed like i lapped the whole field 3 times! We are just ecstatic to come away with a win here, as we thought we might struggle, not having any previous year's data to go by. So a job well done by the whole team.

With Shiro and Mikko in your mirrors the whole race, was it hard to concentrate on the road ahead rather than those behind?

Not really, i was concentrating on my own race & just pushed real hard on new tyres just to open up a gap, then just played it safe & got the car home. My only concern was getting by backmarker's.

A DNF for Whiteman at the first turn has meant that you have moved up to second in the drivers standings, and with recent form backing you up, surely you must be thinking of glory come Brazil now?

No, not at all. Mikko has been very consistent this year & Scott has been super-quick but suffered some reliability problems, so he's been unlucky there. As i said in the qualifying press conference, we'll just see how everything goes in the next 2 or 3 races & if i can win a few more & the other guys run into some problems, then i'll start thinking about the championship.

2nd - Mikko Jakonen (Mapes-VO - Honda)

Well done Mikko, second place around the tricky Hungaroring, how did it go?

Yeah it really is tricky. Luckily we managed to set the car up quite nicely, it allowed me to use the kerbs a lot and accelerate out of most corners seemingly better than most other guys. The first stint was quite hectic, it took some laps to get into rhythm and I had to fight for positions a lot before I settled into 2nd place, and by that time Steve had taken a comfortable 5 second lead. After that I was doing ok, the car felt good and pitstops went smoothly. I was maybe a bit too wary in the middle sector, I took the left-right corners a bit too carefully.. I tried to push more to get closer to my qualifying time but I almost lost the rear a couple of times as the heavy tyre wear made every lap a little bit different. So I eased off a bit and got to the end without any bad mistakes. Couple of close calls with the backmarkers again but that was to be expected here. All in all I'm quite happy with my performance today.

You never lost sight of Steve for 77 laps, how frustrating was it not to be able to challenge him more for the lead?

Yeah, after the first pitstop I was doing similar lap times with him, but I couldn't really get close enough to challenge him, I would've needed to be able to push more right from the start. And he managed to pass some backmarkers more easily than me here and there which gave him a few seconds more gap. After the last stop it was obvious that I couldn't catch him without him making a mistake, so I eased off a bit and settled for 2nd. It's my birthday today so I would've liked a win, but 2nd is ok too, and Steve deserves his victory, he was a bit faster the whole weekend.

No points for Whiteman, but Steve has taken over in second place now, can you hold on and take your second title here?

Yeah the crash didn't make things easy for Scott, I just hope he's ok by next race. I've got a 19 point lead on Steve, and barring any technical problems we've yet to have, I think I should be able to hold onto this. Podium finishes is what I need, and I think we won't have any more weekends like Silverstone which is so far the only race for me outside the top three. There are a couple of track to come where we might have problems but I'm confident the team and myself are ready for the task. Anyway the situation is much better than last year this time, and I intend to capitalize on it.

3rd - Shiro Ryong (SCUM - Holden)

Welcome back Shiro! A great result for the team on your return, how did it go?

A rather quiet race after the first stint and overall it was pretty good. The car/tyre package was consistent and no problems at all with the traffic.

We haven't seen you for a while now, how easy was it for you to jump straight back into the car and race competitively?

Car was already set up pretty well when I first jumped in. The Bridgestones also performed very well so it was easy to get to the limit right away.

The title race looks to be going down to the wire in Brazil, who do you think will take home the gold?

Right now I'd have to say Mikko, his points lead is quite large and only a few races left, but I do hope it will be an Aussie again this year.