Yoong chances boosted

Yoong, who drove in Formula Three and Formula 3000 during 1999, will receive help to fund a drive in the Japan-based Formula Nippon series next season. The new business arrangement should also assist in securing Yoong an F1 budget for 2001.

He tested with the Le Mans Co and Nakajima Planning teams recently and ended up ninth fastest, marginally ahead of his former Alan Docking Racing F3 team-mate Yudai Igarashi, who was running with the Cerumo outfit.

Ralf Schumacher and Pedro de la Rosa both graduated to F1 after winning the Nippon title, and 1999 series champion Tom Coronel may yet follow in their footsteps next season.

Hanifah Yoong Abdullah, President of the Malaysian Motorsports Organisers and Competitors Association said:

'This is good news for Malaysia as we have already got the F1 event and the driver cannot come too late to complement our event.

'Malaysia's event had drawn in very good overseas spectator (numbers) and when Alex joins the event he'll be able to add onto the spectating numbers from Malaysia and the South East Asian region.'