Malaysian GP Saturday Williams notes

Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button will start from 8th and 16th positions respectively for the 2000 Malaysian Grand Prix. Jenson struggled with some hydraulic problems during the free practice session, which prevented him from completing many laps and gaining more experience on the Sepang track.

Ralf Schumacher
"I had expected a position between fifth and eighth and unluckily I am at the bottom of my forecast. I could have been fifth but in my last flying lap I made a mistake in turn fourteen. On this track we've been struggling from the start to find the right set-up. If I manage a good start on Sunday, I can still run for some points."

Jenson Button
"Disappointing qualifying session for me. I hoped I could start the last race of this season with the BMW WilliamsF1 Team from a much better position. I set my best time on the first run and after that I just couldn't get a good lap together. In my last attempt I found some traffic and also had a problem with Verstappen. I didn't run enough this morning and we didn't achieve enough mileage to get the car set-up correctly. I can only hope that it will end up like in Germany, where I started twenty second and finished fourth."

Patrick Head
"Unfortunately Jenson rather paid the penalty for the technical problem he had this morning and in truth his car wasn't very good in the afternoon. He's got quite a difficult race ahead of him. Ralf's at the wrong end of a very close group, there was always the potential to be at the front end of it but we didn't make it. It's a very long and tough race tomorrow and I think we've got to do our homework to make sure we're in good condition for fifty six laps."

Gerhard Berger
"This time Ralf could not exploit the new tyres in his last two runs. On one run he lost some time in the first sector and in his last run he couldn't find the right rhythm. Jenson has suffered from the fact that in the morning free practice session he could only run 12 laps, due to a hydraulic problem. He is very good in becoming familiar with the new tracks, but for finding the right set-up, good mileage is basic."