It was a difficult day for Williams, who joined Team Lotus, Virgin and Hispania at the back of the grid at Sepang...
Williams:
Rubens Barrichello: "We don't seem to have the pace we need in qualifying. We were stronger in Melbourne and so we need to analyse why and see where we are in the race. All things considered, my lap was ok, in fact it was probably one of my best laps around Malaysia but it wasn't good enough to counteract the performance of the car today. Whether we get rain or a steady run in a dry race we'll be going for points."
Pastor Maldonado: "That was a difficult session and we definitely didn't expect to be out in Q1. The car wasn't feeling as good as it was this morning. I had a bit of traffic as well so I didn't get a clean lap. We have a lot of tyres now for tomorrow and the car goes better on long runs than it does in qualifying. With a good strategy who knows what will happen. There's no reason why we can't get into the points."
Team Lotus:
Heikki Kovalainen: "That was a great session for us and I'm really pleased with how we've performed. After yesterday, I didn't really know what to expect going into today's sessions but the guys have done a great job to give me a car that is totally different to yesterday. As soon as I went out on track this morning I could feel there was a huge improvement in every area and we have had no reliability issues at all today so I was able to really push. I've enjoyed the whole day and I felt like I was able to get the best out of the car in all the runs. There's still a bit more to come so I think tomorrow will be a really interesting race for us, particularly when you see how close we are to the midfield, and with the pace we know the car has in race trim."
Jarno Trulli: "Today's performance is obviously a lot more positive for the whole team. We had no issues with the car in either session and I think we got pretty close to showing what the car can really do. FP3 was very useful and we have also taken some good data from qualifying itself as we tried to get the best out of the car. The plan for tomorrow is to keep consistent and reliable, take our chances when they come and be there at the end. It is a long and very hot race where anything can happen but I think we are ready for it, so let's see how it goes."
Virgin:
Timo Glock: "After Free Practice 3 this morning I'd say we had some problems as we couldn't get the car to work like yesterday and we didn't have the same speed. My Race Engineer and Performance Engineer worked very well together to come up with a good solution which ensured we got back the performance level that we had until then. I was a little unlucky on my second set of tyres when I hit traffic with Karthikeyan. I would have found a couple of tenths but this wouldn't have changed our position today. We've done the best we can with the package so as ever we'll be focusing on getting both cars home and making the most of every opportunity that comes our way - one of which may of course be the weather, as there is a chance of rain during the race."
Jerome D'Ambrosio: "I'm very pleased with the job we've done today. It's definitely a step forward and I did a much better job than in Melbourne. I've learned a lot. I'm very happy with how we've worked this weekend and I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow - it should be very interesting with the weather and pitstops playing a big part I think. Overall I'm quite happy with this second Saturday. I'm making progress and I'm happy with that."
Hispania:
Tonio Liuzzi: "It's great for everyone that we were well under 107%. We proved that in Australia the problem wasn't a matter of pace but a matter of time out on the track, we had half a day of testing compared to the three months other teams did. You can't just gain mileage out of nothing. Now we have to work hard in the following months, in the next races to try and close the gap. This is just the first step for Hispania Racing, we've done a great job and we've improved the car a lot from Australia to now. I'm proud of the work done by everybody, starting with when they got the car on the ground in Australia and now having got it in good condition here in Sepang. We had a few minor issues both yesterday and today but that is normal when you're working with such little time. I think we can still improve, I did a good lap and this is the result: we will be on the grid tomorrow."
Narain Karthikeyan: "We made it through qualifying which was our aim for today. The car is virtually brand new so it's good to get some more mileage done, the more time we can get out on the track the better. I flat spotted my second set of tyres on turn one so it was hard to set a good time with them after that but everybody worked extremely hard and we're delighted to be in the race. We marked Sepang on the calendar beforehand as one of the toughest circuits to get under the 107% time so it's a great satisfaction to have done it. Now I hope to finish tomorrow's race and get a lot more laps under my belt with the new car. They're forecasting rain for tomorrow so you never know what will happen out there."
