Post-race press conference - Monaco GP.

Drivers: Jarno Trulli (Renault), Jenson Button (BAR), Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari)

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Q:
Jarno, a truly historic occasion - your first win, Renault's first win as a team at Monte Carlo, and the first win by an Italian here for 22 years. The pressure at the end of the race was outstanding as well...

Jarno Trulli:
It's amazing at the moment. I'm so happy, for me, for everybody, for all those people who have been supporting me. I have been waiting for so long and it came at the best race, Monaco. It was just fantastic for me. I drove a perfect race, leading from the beginning and, even with Michael on the track, I would have won anyway because I had already pitted. In the end, I was just managing the race. I was slowing down, taking care of my tyres and everything, not taking any risks, because anyway I know that, in Monaco, you cannot overtake.

Q:
Talk us through the closing stages of the race there. Jenson got very very close at the end there....

JT:
It was just down to me, honestly. When I wanted, I just responded to the quickest lap time, but then, in the end, there was no point in taking any risks. I was just handling the race. He closed the gap, but he couldn't get close enough to try to overtake, so everything was under control.

Q:
Well, you seemed very calm and composed, what were your thoughts and emotions in those closing laps, and particularly on the slowing down lap as well?

JT:
Everything was going through my mind. I have been waiting for so long, I've been through a lot of bad moments and, at the moment, I just cannot realise that I won the race and I've won in Monaco, probably the best race in the world. I'm happy. Nothing's going to change for me, I will keep going as I've done for the first part of this championship and I'm so happy for me, but also especially for the Renault team.

Q:
Jenson, what a race from your point of view...

Jenson Button:
Yeah. Off the line, I didn't get a very good start and I lost out to Alonso, and then it was really tough. The traffic was so tough, the backmarkers, but, in the last stint, when I was behind Jarno, I know that you can't overtake here, but I had to give everything I possibly could and maybe push him into a mistake. I know he wasn't pushing 100 per cent, but you've got to try. I had the possibility of hitting the guardrail, but I want to win so much, so I was pushing as hard as I possibly could.

Q:
We saw a lot of incidents in this race - one of the major ones, of course, was Michael Schumacher hitting the guardrail in the tunnel. Did you see any of that?

JB:
No, because I had already had my pit-stop, so I was seven or eight cars back, but it was very strange. It's slippery in the tunnel anyway. We normally go through there at 160mph and you have so much downforce that you don't have a problem with the slippery asphalt. But, when you're going that slowly, it is very very slippery.

Q:
Both you and Jarno had two stops - did the amount of safety car time affect your strategy?

JB:
When Alonso hit the barriers in the tunnel, obviously we pitted immediately, and I think it was the correct thing to do so. I think, if Michael had stayed on circuit, we would have been ahead when he had made his stop. The team did a fantastic strategy, but we couldn't catch this man.

Q:
Rubens, a distant third place, but third place nonetheless. You didn't come in when the safety car came out; what was the thinking behind that?

Rubens Barrichello:
We had a lot of fuel on board at that time. I must be honest, I was very lucky today, just to finish the race, because there was a point in the race when I started to lock the wheels and I felt that something had happened to the rear suspension. So, when the safety car came out, I had the chance to go slowly beside the pit-wall to see if they [the mechanics] could see something, because I was hitting the ground quite badly and was locking the wheels as if the car wasn't behaving quite right from left to right. So it was just a question of going round and round just to finish the race really. There was no point in pushing because something must have broken on the car.

Q:
What did you see of Michael's incident in the tunnel?

RB:
I was further behind, so I couldn't see anything. All of a sudden, I saw some pieces flying and then I saw Michael slowing down with the suspension [broken]. Nothing that I could have seen.

Q:
And what about the Sato engine blow-up early in the race?

RB:
Umm. To be very honest with you, I thought that they should have put a flag out for him before because there were already three laps when he was already pushing out too much smoke out of the engine or out of the gearbox. Something was happening there, it was obvious. There was major drama. I got my car just as I was going into the guardrail. I was zero per hour, but I would have damaged my car because you could see absolutely nothing.

Q:
Jarno, final thoughts from you. You started from the pole and you've won the Monaco Grand Prix. It must be starting to sink in now...

JT:
It's fine, it's nice to dominate the weekend. I think it's been a faultless weekend. I'm extremely happy because it's the best way to win the race, to be on top the whole weekend.

Press conference:

Q:
Jarno, could you believe at the start of the weekend that you might be sitting in the middle this afternoon?

JT:
First of all, I would like to thank everybody: English, French, journalists from all over the world, because you have been so nice to me, and I really appreciate the fact that I had a very warm welcome. It's really appreciated, so thank you [applause].

To be honest, you always have to believe you can do it and I knew that I had a good car. The Renault is really doing very well and we are gradually improving the car, but obviously you never know, because this year has been dominated by Ferrari so far. You always hope that you can do it, but you never know until you get there and actually when we hit the track at the beginning of the session on Thursday, we figured out that we were competitive but you don't know how far you can go.

Q:
Is it a great weight off your shoulders, a great relief?

JT:
Definitely. I've been talking about this with Jenson as well. When things go wrong and you cannot do much about it, it's tough, but you have to be strong and you have to be stubborn and you have to believe and trust in yourself. This is what I've done, and finally I've got it. I got my first pole and my first victory. At the beginning of the season, I said I was still looking for it. I got both together and it's fantastic, especially here in Monaco. At the moment, I feel great. I don't want to change, I won't change anything. I will probably just be more confident, but life doesn't change for me, it's just a little satisfaction.

Q:
Now tell us about the start, it seemed to be perfect?

JT:
I did a good start and, from then on, I tried to push and pull away - and, actually, I was doing a good job. The fact that the safety car came out didn't help me because I knew I had the pace to pull away, so I had eight laps wasted. And then the other factor which really penalised me throughout the race were the backmarkers - they were really bad. I lost several seconds per lap sometimes because they were just ignoring us. Jenson had the same problem, most of us had the same problem, but when you're leading, you are the first to hit the backmarkers and you are the first to lose, most of the time.

Q:
How hard was Fernando pushing you?

JT:
It was okay, he was just a couple of seconds behind me. Sometimes, he was pushing me, but then I eventually responded to him, pulling away, but the problem was that I lost so much time with the traffic that, every time I was pulling away, he always got the gap back again. I knew I was quicker, I knew that I should have to pit and, therefore, when I came out ahead of him at the last pit-stop, the race was done. Then we had the second safety car and the thing changed a little bit but, in general, the race was in my hands from the beginning.

Q:
And you felt perfectly in control when Jenson was up behind you?

JT:
Yeah, I mean I knew that he was trying to catch me up and I knew that his idea was to put pressure on me. But, on a circuit like Monaco, you cannot overtake. I actually responded to him with some quick laps without taking any risks, just to show the team that I was not panicking, I had everything in hand. I just didn't want to take any risks. So many things have gone wrong for me in the past and I wanted to make sure that I got my first victory with a faultless race.

Q:
And it's just so special to do it here, isn't it?

JT:
Yes, Monaco is so special. It was, yesterday, for the pole position. In my head, there was this idea to win the race, and I had the idea to pull away from the beginning and I did exactly what I expected to do.

Q:
Jenson, it looked as though you were trying so hard, particularly on the last lap. I think you had a couple of moments on the last lap, didn't you?

JB:
I did, yeah, and I also had a backmarker on the last lap which didn't help, but you've got to push as hard as you possibly can and I was giving 100 per cent. Every lap was a qualifying lap because I wanted to try and catch Jarno to see if I could put him under pressure. It didn't work, because he was obviously driving very well, he was taking it a little bit easier but you've got to try.

Q:
Was it very frustrating when Michael overtook you on the pit-stops?

JB:
It was very frustrating, because I was really struggling with traffic. I was sat behind da Matta for three-and-a-half laps, which was just... I've never seen anything like it, I really haven't. They took a lap to get their blue flags out, but he had blue flags for two-and-a-half laps. I'll be having a word with him afterwards because it's just not on. It was pathetic.

Q:
He was penalised later on anyway...

JB:
Was did he? Good.

Q:
Takuma obviously had his big problem, but was that conveyed to you? Did you have to take any action?

JB:
No, I didn't ease up at all throughout the race and everything was running smoothly, I didn't have any problems. The team didn't actually tell me what actually happened with the car. There was no reason to, really, except to be careful, obviously, where he broke down.

Q:
What about the start, how was that?

JB:
Terrible. I didn't feel I could have done anything else. I thought I had made a pretty good start, and then I saw Alonso fly by me and Taku was right behind me, so it was pretty hectic at the first corner. But I came out third, which wasn't too bad, and then it was just to try and stay with the two Renaults, which I was doing pretty well until I pitted on lap 19 and they carried on for another four or something.

Q:
Rubens, I expect you wanted a bit more for your birthday than third place, but, all in all, you must be fairly happy with it.

RB:
Yeah, like I said in the other room, I've been so lucky today and I think that's the present that I got from God, because the car didn't behave at all in the way we thought. There was one time when I was going into Casino Square and the car just hit the ground badly and I locked the outside wheel just like if I had a puncture. I radioed to the team saying 'I'm coming in, I have a puncture' and the car felt reasonable to finish that lap, although I was locking the wheels strangely.

Something must have broken on the rear suspension or something but, because I had the gap to Montoya, they said if I could do twenties, we would still be okay and to carry on for a few more laps, bring it in earlier and just try another set of tyres. But, even though with the other set the car got better, it was very strange because it was hitting the ground and it wasn't doing things nicely from one side to the other, so I was just a passenger. Today, I've been very lucky. I'm not even sweating, because I really had to carry the car around just to finish my run.

Q:
You were overtaken by Montoya early on, what happened then?

RB:
You know, after the safety car period, the pace was really slow, I had cold tyres at that time and he risked everything - I thought he was going straight on actually. So I thought that there was no point for me to close the door and lose my nose or something. From the beginning, it looked like it was going to be a race of lots of moments. When Sato exploded his engine, it was very dangerous and the backmarkers were horrible today. It was a race just to keep on going. With the problems that I had, it was difficult to keep the car on the track. With the others, I wasn't even worried.

Q:
Was that right from the start, your problem? Did you make contact with anything?

RB:
No, no, no. When I started I had a reasonable start but Takuma was already gone, so we must learn from him what he's doing because I was still stationary when he went by, so I didn't know if he anticipated the start or something like that. It was really strange. My car wasn't behaving very nicely, but twenty laps into the race, that thing happened so there was no point in pushing.