Malaysian GP Saturday Sauber notes

Mika Salo and Pedro Diniz qualified their RED BULL SAUBER PETRONAS C19s 17th and 20th respectively for tomorrow’s Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix.

Pedro Diniz:
I struggled all day with too much understeer, and that was why I aborted my first run this afternoon, so that we could make further adjustments. Unfortunately we then had a misunderstanding on tyre combination in my middle stint, but my last one was my fastest. It`s just a shame I couldn`t improve the turn-in of the car, which is a key requirement here.

Mika Salo:
It`s frustrating, because I just didn`t get a good lap together today. On my first installation lap I went too quick and got traffic on my flier, my second run wasn`t too good, and on my third I made a little mistake. I waited as long as I dared for my fourth run, but then I hit the queue of cars right at the end. I was too close to Eddie Irvine, and lost downforce all the way round. It was a great shame, because the car was fine for me today.

Peter Sauber:
On our `home` ground with Petronas in Sepang we came with very high aims and are understandably disappointed not to have achieved them. The problem with understeer proved too acute in qualifying, especially with Pedro. But if you add up Mika`s sector times he would have been 12th on the grid, which is much closer to our target. We anticipate a long, hard race tomorrow, and since the C19s have good performance in race trim it is still possible to score World Championship points.