Trulli mystified by lack of pace

The Italian finished over a second behind teammate Ralf Schumacher in the afternoon session after struggling with the handling of his TF107 car.

"Since the beginning of the day I've been struggling so we will have to look into that tonight," said Trulli, 16th quickest over two seconds off the pace.

"The track was short of grip early on and I found myself sliding with all four wheels. The car has been inconsistent and it has not responded to the set-up changes we've made.

"And while the track improved I actually got worse with the same set-up. So something strange is happening and now we need to investigate why.

"Still, I like this track and I have always performed pretty well here," added the Italian, who scored Toyota's first podium at Sepang two years ago.

Schumacher, meanwhile, enjoyed a more encouraging day, posting the eighth fastest time.

The German, who scored one point in Australia, is looking to score again on Sunday.

"That was a reasonable day and good preparation for the rest of the weekend," he said. "It's obviously hot here and the conditions push the drivers to the limit.

"But I like the heat and last week's testing was a good preparation for the weekend. Despite so many cars running here, the circuit was still very low on grip today.

"Still, we made it through our programme of work with no problems. We are comfortable with the track and the tyres were also working well.

"It's difficult to judge true performance after the first race but our goal is to get two cars into the top ten again and hopefully to take more points."