March 25, 2004
The top 3 drivers in qualifying - Whiteman; Elencevski and Jakonen - were interviewed by Toby Lock.

Pole Position - Scott Whiteman (EIRE)

Q - Congratulations on your pole position! How did it go?

Like a 12 year old scotch, quite smoothly. All in all we could have been about 0.3 quicker but i'm sure we'll get there as the fuel starts to empty during the race.

Q - Reliability is obviously an issue in the heat of Malaysia. Do you think your car can hold out?

Well the EIRE mechanics have been working hard to avoid any reliability problems so i'm hoping that the car will last the distance.

Q - After an almost flawless victory in Melbourne, can you make it two in a row here in Sepang?

I think that it will be a close battle in the opening laps, but if i can see that through then i think we have the package for victory here.

Q - In our last press conference you mentioned playing golf, have you done any of that here in Malaysia or have you been busy looking for a mail order bride?

Neither actually, the team got a wake up call in Australia and all week we have been focussed on getting the most out of the car, beside the golf courses here are far too expensive.

2nd - Steve Elencevski (FinOz)

Q - Welcome to the press conference Steve, your first here in F1VWC! How did your lap go?

I'm very happy to be here for the first time & i hope i can be here regularly !

My lap went very well apart from a slowish 2nd sector where on a few occasions i was quicker by 2 tenths, so i felt i maybe could have snatched pole or come very close to Scott's time. But i'm not complaining, starting from the front row in our 2nd race is a real boost for us as we also have Kari on the second row of the grid, so it's a great qualifying result for the team.

Q - How confident are you of strategy, tyres, reliability etc for winning the race?

I'm quite confident we can do well here, we have a great set-up where we tested very long runs & it seems our tyres are handling the hot conditions very well & Sepang is one of my favourite circuits so it would be nice to get a win here, or even a podium would be a great result. It's a long & tough race, so we hope to get both cars to the end of the race & score some more points.

Q - As a reigning World Champion (of IGP3), how do you rate your chances of succeeding here in the F1VWC?

Our season has started very well & we are always learning new things at every circuit we go to, but there's a lot of quick driver's challenging for top positions so it's going to be a long hard season.Our aim at the start of the season was to finish in the top 5 of the driver's & constructor's championships & score some podiums, so if we can achieve that or better it, then we have done a great job.

3rd - Mikko Jakonen (Mapes-VO)

Q - Well done on 3rd Mikko! How was your lap?

Thanks! You know, this is one of the toughest tracks to nail down perfectly with just one go, and I didn't quite make it this time. Last year I managed to do that pretty much, but the qualifying was quite different then anyway. 20 laps more in free practise would've helped much with setup and confidence, but we couldn't afford it because of heat issues. But all things considering, it was a decent enough lap. The car felt a bit sluggish in some high speed corners so I had to be a bit careful, but we're hoping it will get better when we get a lighter fuel load. Congratulations to Whiteman for a fine lap, I wasn't able to touch that today.

Q - With many possibilities for pit stops, do you feel you made the right choice in your strategy?

Well that very much depends on the weather, will it rain, is the temperature high enough, or too high for our tyres. Based on what we know I believe the strategy should be good, I believe I have a good chance to challenge Scott in the early laps and I should get quicker near the end of my stints, so yes I'm counting on us having made the right choice.

Q - Are you confident in the Mapes-VO package to see yourself to the top step of the podium here in Sepang?

If it's hot enough for our tyre to work it's best I think it's quite possible. We still have some problems with the front aerodynamics, so I'm not able to get the car 100% the way I'd like it, but I'm sure the car is able to win this race. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Q - How come your teammate was 16th with the same car today? Do you know what the problem was?

Petri was furious about that.. In free practise our times were just a couple of tenths apart and I think he was more happy with the setup than I was with mine, but then he just went a tiny bit wide at turn 8 and that immediately cost him 2 seconds.. I really feel sorry for him. But his strategy should work in this situation as well, so I'm confident he'll be in the points after a few laps.