Malaysian GP Friday McLaren notes

The West McLaren Mercedes team went through preparations for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix during today's two Free Practice sessions at the Sepang circuit. Mika emerged fastest with a time of 1:40.262 and completed 36 laps while David was third after setting a time of 1:40.498. He did 27 laps.

Mika Hakkinen:
'As we were preparing for the race we worked a lot on getting the optimum set-up for the car and we made great progress during the two sessions. The team has done a good job preparing the car since Suzuka and I'm pleased. While its tough driving in these sweltering conditions it's not as bad as last year as we now have power steering in the car. There is no doubt that today's practice was a good way to start the preparations for the last race of the year.'

David Coulthard:
'My car was not so good as I would have liked and we worked hard to make some modifications to improve the feeling of the car. My main problem was understeer, but I'm sure that we will find further improvements by studying the data.'

Ron Dennis:
'Whilst the facilities at the Sepang circuit are the best in the world, the high levels of heat and humidity make the working conditions extremely hard for everybody. As a result the preparation of the cars is somewhat more difficult, which means that the outcome of today a little more satisfying for the team.'

Norbert Haug:
'Not a bad beginning for us and we learnt a lot for the race. I think we are also in a position to do well in tomorrow's qualifying.