Malaysian GP McLaren Friday notes

The West McLaren Mercedes team finished today's free practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix with David Coulthard setting the fourth fastest time with 1:39.300. Mika Hakkinen did a time of 1:39.861, which put him sixth. David and Mika completed 31 and 26 laps respectively.

David Coulthard
'There is no doubt that it's very hot out there and it will be a tough race on Sunday. We have done a lot of work today but we still have some way to go before I'm happy with the car. However what matters is Saturday's qualifying which is when we can really see where we are in relation to our competitors.'

Mika Hakkinen
'We are having some problems finding the right balance for the car to suit this track. The main problem is lack of grip at the front, which means the car is very difficult to drive. We are going to study the data and find out how we can improve. Today is free practice and you never know what level of fuel the competition is running with.'

Ron Dennis
'We have had more productive practices than those of today. The drivers and their engineers have not yet achieved the car balance, which has always been difficult to find on this circuit.'

Norbert Haug
'We have been working on our race set-up and have not yet met our targets but tomorrow is another day to further improve our cars.'