Ferrari ecstatic over Monaco result.
27th May, 2001

For the fifth time in his career Michael Schumacher won the Monaco Grand Prix today. After earning ten points, he also increased his lead in the championship to 12 points over David Coulthard and his team's lead to 32 over McLaren. Recalling the technical failure last year in Monaco, he admitted that he was a little worried it might happen again. "To win here in Monaco, first you have to finish. In some ways it was an easy and straightforward race, because I was out in front on my own. But at the same time it was quite hard as we still had to do fast lap times. In some ways, the traction control made the race tougher physically as we are going quicker. I love this circuit as it is always a challenge. Today, I just had to think about reliability and make sure I didn't make a mistake. I asked Ross Brawn what some other drivers were doing and he told me to concentrate. I had no problem with back-markers and my car was pretty good, even if I did not push 100%, because in the early stages, when Mika was behind me I was trying to look after the car and the tyres."

Rubens Barrichello suffered from cramps in his foot during the first part of the race, but crossed the finish line just 0.4 seconds behind his team mate and he was also extremely happy. "My race was not as easy as it looked, because around about lap 10, I started to get cramp in my right foot. I think there might have been a problem in the cockpit because the pedals were vibrating a lot and I had trouble with my heel rest. The team advised me on the radio to try and move my toes and drink more water. I could not feel my foot and so I was having to brake early and concentrate on not going off. After the pit stop, I pushed hard on the heel rest and the situation improved from then on. I have to say my car was brilliant, I've never had such a good car."