Malaysian GP
Sepang - Comments
Sunday
Jean Alesi:
"In retrospect it might have been better to have adopted a different
strategy during practice on Friday, when we ran with little fuel on board. If we had done
more running with a higher fuel load we might have been able to tune the car a little bit
better for the race"
Pedro Diniz:
"I made a great start and this time I avoided the carnage in the first corner. I was
right behind Jean in 11th place, but unfortunately I spun in the last corner. After that I
fought my way back from 18th place and the car felt pretty good. Then after a while it
developed a little bit of a brake problem. The second time I spun, Frentzen had just
passed me and as I was trying to repass him he came across the front of my car and I lost
it as I had to brake hard. I'd rather not talk too much about the final adventure. I was
tying to get a drink and lost concentration momentarily. Next thing, I was off and stuck
in the gravel"
Peter Sauber:
"Please don't ask me why we are always quicker in the race than in
qualifying ! "
Saturday
Jean Alesi:
"Im really disappointed because I lost my last run when I came up
behind Barrichello, who was on his warm-up lap. They showed him the blue flag but he just
kept pushing. This sort of thing is really upsetting, and ruined my chance of qualifying
where I should have."
Pedro Diniz:
"Things got off to a bad start for me this afternoon when I spun on my warm-up
lap; all I can say is the car was oversteering all afternoon. It felt really good this
morning, but we didnt quite have the set-up right this afternoon when the track
temperature went up."
Peter Sauber:
"I was optimistic that we would qualify strongly today after our good performance
yesterday and this morning. In retrospect I think we might have reacted a little better to
increased track temperatures in the qualifying session. The set-up changes we made took us
in the wrong direction and led to this unexpected result. At the same time however, Jeans
final and fastest run was frustrated for a reason I do not know by Rubens Barrichello,
preventing Jean from improving his grid position."
Friday
Jean Alesi:
"This morning I went on to the grass and damaged the undertray a little, the I spun
again this afternoon. This is a good circuit, but we have work to do on the balance before
qualifying tomorrow."
Pedro Diniz:
"The circuit is quite similar in character to Barcelona. It was quite tricky
initially to find the right line, because it's pretty wide. I had a bit too much
understeer this morning, then a spin because of too much oversteer this afternoon,
following a set-up change. We changed the set-up again and it was better. Right at the end
I tried some new tyres, and while there is still some work to do on the balance and I am
sure things will be more difficult tomorrow, we know that the car is quite well suited to
this track."
Peter Sauber:
"We have done a lot of good pre-race publicity work in Kuala Lumpur recently, we now
have to prove our performance on the track as well. In our first experience on this
wonderful track, we did 70 laps. I'm satisfied with the data that we accrued today and we
will do everything to be thoroughly prepared for qualifying tomorrow."
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