Suzuki says Sato exceeded expectations

The Japanese driver, who had already finished the Bahrain Grand Prix on his team's debut, finished three laps down in one of the toughest races of the season in Sepang after a long battle with the Toro Rosso of Tonio Liuzzi.

His teammate Yuji Ide, on the other hand, failed to complete the event after retiring with mechanical problems for the second time in a row.

Despite that, Suzuki was encouraged by their performance.

"I think that the team did a great job during the pitstops and Takuma had a great race," said Suzuki. "He made a good start today and had better performance than we thought we could achieve from the current chassis.

"Unfortunately Yuji had a similar mechanical problem to the one he suffered in Bahrain and stopped once again before the checkered flag - but I think that he drove very well today.

"I am very happy that we have completed our second race and I am very much looking forward to travelling for round three in Australia next week."

Sato added: "Great team work has meant that we have been able to improve on our pitstops since Bahrain and as a result I lost no time and was able to get back into the race and actually challenge a few cars.

"Of course we struggle on the high downforce corners with our pace, but I had another exciting race and at least we managed to finish the race once again.

"We still have a lot of hard work to do if we are to catch up to our nearest rivals, but we showed good teamwork today and I am very happy and proud of the team."