By Phil Huff (20/06/2004)
June 20 2004

Takuma's third top three qualifying position means he had to face the Fastest Three press conference again. Normal fare, apart from one question about his fame in Japan... That's your third top three qualifying position of the year and here you are, right next to the two Ferrari drivers at Indianapolis. Surely it doesn't get any better than that.

I think it's a great result today, for the team as well. I lost yesterday's practice session so I'm really pleased, myself, to get back on the pace and also the team has done a fantastic job so far and it's resulted in the second row and that's a really good result.

Do you think you can take the race tomorrow to the Ferrari drivers?

They are always very strong in the race, race pace, but I think we've improved our consistency in long runs so we are pretty much hoping we can get closer. That's what we'll have to do tomorrow afternoon.

You were fastest in the second sector overall and then if anything you lost a little bit in the final sector. Can you say where that would have gone?

I don't know. As Rubens described, it was a little bit gusty and I wonder if the wind affected it a little bit. But nevertheless I am very happy with the result today, and particularly both two cars on the second row for the first time as a set. It was a great result for the team and I am really pleased about it.

It is a long straight here, probably the longest at full throttle in the championship. What are your feelings about that, particularly has the team made any changes for you given the reliability over the past few races?

Well, that is a bit of a grey area. We really don't know what is going on with the reliability issues. It is just that I was a little bit unlucky and also with Jenson the engine was quite on the edge and anything can happen any time. But I always had the problems this season so far but obviously Honda is working really hard to solve the problem and obviously in the short time from Canada to here we did a little, not treatment, but a step for the engine reliability issue. So we hope this one is okay for this Grand Prix.

What kind of a chance do you really have tomorrow to beat these guys? Is it going to be a question of luck or something more?

To win a Grand Prix I think you need everything but to be honest, trying to beat Ferrari is obviously very, very difficult as everybody has seen this year so far. But that is our aim and objective so we are trying and obviously having had these free practice sessions yesterday and today we seem to be a little bit consistent through the longer runs, which they are always strong. So we are hoping we can catch them up. We are getting better and better all the time so that is what we are going to hope tomorrow afternoon.

What kind of following do you have in Japan? How famous are you over there?

I think in Japan they are all very excited about this season. Obviously, like, 15 years ago we had a massive following for Formula One and then we kind of lost it a bit in the late 1990s but we have come back quite significantly this year and I have got lots of cheering from Japan and I am really feeling positive information from all the guys. So, we are very happy about the progress we have made.