Mika Salo Q&A
Toyota's astonishing form continued in Malaysia, where Mika Salo proved that Melbourne was no fluke. The Finn qualified 10th and then drove a storming race, running as high as sixth place early on and giving Jenson Button a hard time. His race was spoiled by an electrical problem that caused him to park in the garage, but the team was able to rectify it and send him out to at least record a finish. It was disappointing, but the car had looked even more impressive than it had in Australia, although a two-stop strategy had flattered Salo a little. Adam Cooper spoke to him after the race
"It was great. The car was really good until we had a little electrical problem with it. We still don't know what it was, but in all the right hand corners I lost 50-60% of the power."
"Everything was perfect. We had a good strategy, and the tyres were just as we wanted them - not like Michelin wanted them. We did something completely opposite to what Michelin suggested for us, and it was a really good choice. So I'm not happy [about the problem]."
"Not so early, at least not the top guys, and we were actually racing them already, so that was quite fun. It's good to race with them because now we know where we have to improve compared to their cars, so I know where I'm losing and what's going on."
"It's great, unbelievable on the brakes. I always thought our car was bad on the brakes, but in fact it's very good. I lose out of the corners, our traction could be better, but otherwise it's good."
"Yes, very good. The car was fine, just a little problem and that was it."
"Yes, a lot better!"
"Yes, of course that's what we have to do, because we are quick enough for that. Everybody else's reliability will get better and everybody else will get faster but we just need to do double steps, which I'm sure we can do now."
"I'm expecting quite a lot from Brazil, because it's not as high a downforce circuit as this one, so we should be better there."
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