Schumacher sure to fight for pole, win

The German finished second in the Bahrain Grand Prix last Sunday after having started from pole position from the first time since last year's Hungarian Grand Prix.

Schumacher, who endured a nightmare season in 2005, was in contention for a race win for much of the event, only to lose out to world champion Fernando Alonso after their second pitstop.

And, following today's practice at Sepang, the seven-time champion believes Ferrari will be able to repeat their performance and fight at the top.

"In general we're pleased with the way things went during free practice," said Schumacher, seventh quickest today.

"Towards the end of the session we managed to improve the balance of the car. As far as times are concerned, apart from what the third drivers do, who do a different job compared to the others, I think that the situation is quite clear.

"I could have been a bit quicker with my new tyres when I went out on my first run, but I lost a lot of time in a corner of the third sector. The consistency of the Bridgestone tyres looks pretty good, which of course is very important.

"The actual time recorded is of less importance at this stage because the times improve as the weekend progresses. I reckon that we're competitive and that, like in Bahrain, here in Malaysia we can fight for pole position and for a win on Sunday."

His teammate Felipe Massa was also very happy with his day's work after posting the fourth fastest time of the day. The Brazilian, however, faces a difficult race after being penalised for an engine change after the Bahrain Grand Prix.

"I think it went very well," he said. "We worked for the race by doing quite a few long runs. The car went well both with used and new tyres and I am very pleased with our race pace. In my opinion we have a good car for the race.

"Qualifying will of course be a bit difficult for me because I have to pay the price for the engine change, but considering the pace we had during the long run, I think we're in good shape for  a good result on Sunday."