Malaysian GP Benetton Friday notes

The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team had a productive day at the Sepang circuit on Friday in the first practice sessions ahead of Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.

In sunny, humid conditions with a track temperature that reached 43°C, Giancarlo Fisichella ended the day 13th fastest after setting a time of 1m41.375s, while his team-mate Jenson Button was 17th fastest after setting a lap-time of 1m42.214s.

The team's Technical Director Mike Gascoyne was pleased with their progress over the day, saying:

"A minor electrical problem on Giancarlo's car and a gearbox problem on Jenson's car limited running in the morning session, but we had a productive afternoon and although we weren't able to complete the entire programme, we got some good groundwork done that should stand us in good stead for the weekend ahead.

"Giancarlo is happy with the balance on his car," he added, "but there is still some work to do with the balance on Jenson's, so we hope to make more progress on this tomorrow."

Giancarlo Fisichella explained that understeer was still an issue on his car, but said that overall he was satisfied with his day's work.

"We worked well on the balance of the car and have made a good improvement since this morning. We still have some understeer in the slow corners, but considering I lost so much time this morning due to the battery change on my car, I am pleased with the progress we have made."

Jenson Button's running time was interrupted by gearbox problems, but said that his engineers had still managed to make good progress with his car.

"I didn't get any timed laps completed in the first session as there was a problem with the temperature of the gearbox. In the afternoon session we focussed primarily on set-up and tried a few different directions to improve on the low speed understeer. We have made a step forward but we are not where we want to be with the balance yet, so we will have to do more work on this tomorrow."

The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team will next be on track on Saturday at 9.00am local time for the final practice session of the weekend, ahead of the afternoon's all-important qualifying hour.

- Benetton F1