Rookies Toyota Continue to Shine

The new Toyota Formula One team continued with their impressive showing in their first year in Grand Prix racing, with both their drivers shining in Friday's practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit.

Finn Mika Salo, who gave the Japanese squad their first point after finishing in sixth place at the Australian Grand Prix two weeks ago, set a promising fifth quickest time in today's session, just in front of the Williams of Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya.

"It was a reasonable day," said Salo, who had already tested with Toyota at Sepang last year. "We did a lot of work on car balance and we found some good things. We have made some progress already since Australia, and the car feels better.

"The track is still very slippery though, which hasn't helped anybody. We will have to work tonight to change a few things before qualifying tomorrow."

Despite a problem with the electronics of his car, Scot teammate Allan McNish completed a good day for the Cologne-based team after posting the eleventh fastest time of the day.

"We had a few problems in the first session with an electronics glitch, which restricted our running," admitted McNish. "We got quite a few laps done in the second session and generally the car is not too bad. The tyres seem to be reasonably stable.

"We need to balance the car a little bit better with the tyres but it certainly looks as though Michelin have bought two good sets this weekend."