Fisichella Satisfied Despite Tyre Problems

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella was satisfied after posting the 12th quickest time in Friday's qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Jordan star was again the Silverstone-based team's fastest man, finishing nearly 1.5 seconds ahead of teammate Ralph Firman. Fisichella, however, suffered from some tyre graining in the last corners of his flying lap, which he claimed probably lost him some four grid positions.

"Not too bad. The target was to be in the top ten and I'm just two positions lower," said the Jordan driver. "I was in good shape for most of the lap but unfortunately in the last three corners I had quite a lot of graining and lost three or four tenths of a second. So we have to solve that problem and then I think it's going to be reasonably good."

Briton Firman, who today drove at the Sepang circuit for the first time in an F1 car, had a trouble-free flying lap but paid the price for losing some valuable time in the morning practice session. Firman crashed off the track due to a suspension problem in the hour-long session, causing some damage to the front of his Ford-powered EJ13.

"I lost a bit of set-up time because of the front suspension failure during Free Practice and unfortunately today I just had a little bit too much understeer," admitted Firman after setting the 17h fastest time. "Hopefully we can resolve that and I'm looking forward to qualifying tomorrow."