Montoya pleased to be best of the rest

Juan Pablo Montoya was satisfied with his third-place effort in today's first qualifying session for the Malaysian Grand Prix, although he acknowledged that Ferrari appears to have a big advantage around the Sepang circuit

Mar 21, 2003, 8:50 AM

The Colombian lapped the circuit in 1m35.939s, but was a full 0.959s slower than Michael Schumacher. However, Montoya took pleasure from outpacing the McLarens of Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard.

"I am glad as I could get in a pretty good lap," said Montoya. "I am quite happy with my car at the moment, in spite of some understeer we now need to address. Ferrari are still quite a bit ahead but it is some comfort for me being ahead of both McLarens.

"Now we have to decide what we are going to do for tomorrow's qualifying and consequently for the race. Malaysian hot weather doesn't both me too much, which definitely helps when you have to drive in such extreme conditions."

Sam Michael, Williams Chief operations engineer said: "Juan did a good job today and secured himself a good position for tomorrow's qualifying when we will be out of the pits third last. We still have quite a bit of work ahead of us. Ferrari have proved they still have a big advantage."