May 30, 2002
truly enthralling Monaco Grand Prix threw up a new winner for the 4th time this season. Mikko Jakonen was dominant in his Mapes-VO - Honda, ably supported by his young Irish team-mate Kieran Ryan. Also, Gene Annunziata finished in a career best 3rd place. We gathered the guys up for an exclusive post race press conference.

Mikko, Congratulations on your 1st GPVWC win! Briefly explain your race...

"Thanks very much! I'm not sure I believe it myself yet. Everybody in the team is really happy! About the race... the start was excellent on our part, we flew past the KRB's and had the 1-2 before the 2nd lap. I had to make some changes to the car after qualifying, and it became really difficult to drive. Also my first tyre set was bad, as my laptimes were not so good. The team called me to pits on lap 27 and made a quick check and apparently changed something. After that I was flying. Unfortunately Kieran ran out of fuel during my stop and had to queue up behind me for a short while, that cost him quite much. The rest of the race I could concentrate on driving and I was able to consistently pull some distance. In the last laps I could've gone much faster but then I hit some backmarkers.

But here we are now anyway! (taps Kieran on shoulder)"

How much of this result do you think is owed to the double DNS of Hernj-Roaldo today?

"Well we'll never know will we? Miguel seemed to have some troubles during the whole weekend, but van Renswoude's qualifying lap was really flying. It might've been very close, as they can't use their BHP advantage here to its fullest. But we left the KRB's standing anyway, so I would give most credit of our victory to our 100% team effort this weekend."

How co-operative were the backmarkers when you were lapping them today?

"They were quite O.K for the most part, but a couple of laps before the end, just as I was getting back to my fastest pace, I hit a 5 car caravan who were too busy fighting each other off. I don't know if it was Ponissi or Taipale, some E.I.R.E car, wasn't looking in his mirrors at all! I passed him after the tunnel and he hit me on the side quite hard and I lost 5 seconds getting pack to the race. I also hurt my arm a bit on the contact, so I probably won't be driving in Monza. I hope he'll be more alert next time the race leader is lapping him. He could've just as well ruined my race!"

Can Mapes-VO win again in 2002?

"We still are quite underpowered, even though we've been getting new evolution versions of the Honda engine for almost every race, so it's going to be hard. But we have been meeting our goals earlier and earlier this season, so we most certainly will do our best. At Hungaroring the field should be quite even again, so just maybe there.. But more importantly we'll have to keep driving consistently at our own 100%, which we have been doing so far. And this 1-2 should definitely get the team motivation to new heights!"

And now something in your own languages, please

"Uskomaton juttu! Auto oli loistava, vaikka alussa renkaat eivät oikein toimineet; ensimmäisen stopin jälkeen ei ollut enää mitään ongelmia. Nyt sitten jo seitsemännessä kisassa on saavutettu kaikki asetetut tavoitteet, joten pitää seuraavaksi alkaa hakea paalupaikkaa ja tietenkin kummankin sarjan voittoa.. Kaikki on näköjään mahdollista."

Kieran, Congratulations on 2nd place today, can you briefly sum up your race

"Well it was a hard race right from the start. Mikko and myself had agreed to take it a bit easy into turn one, to make sure of survival. This worked

well, as we both got by Gene rather quickly and with no Hernj head of us, it was a clear first corner for us. I was battling with Mikko hard, until he

got past me. I started to get a bit mesmorised by the barriers so I settled into a rythm (which didnt work out great) At that moment Mikko pulled away well, while I was lapping a lot slower. I had lost feeling in my back and the back of my neck. Mikko at this point was well ahead, but we both could have done without the help of William's E.I.R.E in our way. They may have designed a good car, but they should check their mirrors more often. I came close quite a lot to going out at turn one, but thankfully for our new brakes we brought here, I survived. By about lap 60-65, Gene was making in roads, so I quickly woke up, and speed up towards the end catching Mikko,

but he was to far away. Actually I was lucky to finish in 2nd, but I feel I lost the race for being to accurate. I don't see this as a gain of 16pts,

but rather a LOSS of 5 futher more points, but in the end we got wet with champagne and partied through the night. The next few GP's will hopefully serve me well, as I do like them"

How did the Honda engine feel today?

"Honda have upped their effort but we're still way off BMW and Ferrari. It was down to my liking of Monaco, the new package we brought here that made the difference. But no matter how hard u push, you can't make up the engine difference. Through the race it worked quite well, though there was one moment when it cut out periodically at Grand Hotel hairpin, but luckly it kept going"

Did you feel as if you had the chance to win today?

"For sure I had a chance, I did lead, but those barriers got me. After 78 laps looking at them, I got dazzled. Towards the end I started to lose feeling in my back and neck, which didn't help. I'm doing new physio for Canada, so that should help. In the end our result shows WHO WE ARE, and the chance that we have to over take. I'm sure like other teams, we're sick of seeing those BMW's going round quick and taking pole. I don't think we can get that position a lot, as we don't have a good enough engine for it, but for race, we're more consistant to do that."

Can you elaborate on why you seem to qualify a lot lower than you finish?

"Many have asked me why my qualifying is lower the my race. I'm a consistant driver, I do my best around each track in qualifying but can't seem to get high enough. It has only been recently when I got 4th, that I found the car well. I love Monaco, and that enabled me to do very well. You win and lose a race, in a race, over those x amount of laps, not over 12

laps in qualifying. It's much closer in qualifying, but not in the race. So far we haven't had a wet qualifying so I can't shine there but we have had a

wet race in Imola, and I did well there. Some drivers are like that. For instance, if you remember Prost and Senna. Senna almost always out-qualified Prost because he was more suited, but Prost won more races than Senna, that's were his speciality lied, and mine. I will hopefully do better in qualifying

just have to get to my circuits, which are coming up!"

Congratulations on 3rd place today, can you briefly sum up your race?

"Yes, the race has been exciting. The car was perfect and it was guided easy. I started very well and for the first few laps I tunred in some fast laps."

Did you feel the chance of a higher position today? or was 3rd the most realistic result?

"To be honest... yes...particulary in the first stint of race, where I turned out some fast laps. But the race was long and difficult to conclude, and still I'm not trained to drive such long races."

Can you explain the massive leap in performance for KRB here at Monaco compared to Austria?

"In effect, it has been a jump of performances between the grand prix of Austria and Monaco... the merit is not of a single element of the team, but of to give us drivers an optimal car. In this way I have been able to guide easely."

How is the KRB at the moment since the recent addition of Mariano Malisani?

"As I have said, Mariano always works to the maximum. After Austria Mariano has encouraged me. He has made a lot for the team and in this way I think we can obtain big results."