Panis Stays Positive Despite Poor Showing

Frenchman Olivier Panis remained confident of leaping forward in Saturday's decisive qualifying after struggling in today's session at the Sepang circuit.

"It has not been a fantastic day to be honest," admitted the Toyota driver, who posted the 14th quickest time of the day two seconds off the pace. "We experienced some set-up problems in free practice and in the qualifying, so we have a lot of work to do this evening and in the sessions tomorrow to find the best set-up on the car.

"The main problem today was the grip level, which was not particularly good all day, so we need to improve that for tomorrow. I remain positive though, as I am sure we have some things to play with to find the best solution for second qualifying."

Panis, who shone at the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago before he succumbed to a mechanical problem, was unable to match the pace of his Brazilian teammate Cristiano da Matta.

The current CART champion, in his fist visit to the Malaysian circuit, was Toyota's fastest man, finishing in 11th place.

"The qualifying session today was not too bad for me," said da Matta. "It is my first time driving at the Sepang track, so I still have some room for improvement with my driving style here, but it's a track I really enjoy.

"The first qualifying session for me is always a difficult one because I only have the one-hour free practice in the morning to learn the circuit. Today, we got the balance of the car as close as we could, but tomorrow is another day and I am looking forward to it."