20/03/2002

Allan McNish Postcard from Sepang

After finishing my first Grand Prix at the first corner I have to say I'm happy with the way the Malaysian weekend turned out - in the end. On Saturday evening though I wasn't happy. I had not proved as competitive as I thought we would around Sepang

I was very disappointed to qualify 19th part of that down to having to take the spare car after my race car suffered transmission trouble on my first run. The spare car is never the same and it just didn't feel right. My race car hadn't either but we were able to learn quite a lot from Mika's car and from first thing Sunday morning in the warm-up I knew that it was a whole lot better.

The race has actually given me a lot of confidence because we have proved that we can be thereabouts in practice qualifying warm-up and race - the whole spectrum.

It was quite a daunting race because of the heat with track temperatures approaching 45 degrees at the hottest part of the day. But we had prepared well with acclimatisation at Pangkor and in fact I was never in trouble with the physical side at all.

I made a fantastic start and was encouraged to find that we could really race with a lot of cars that had qualified ahead on the grid It wasn't just straight-line speed which was good all weekend incidentally but we could really go in deep on the brakes and compete.

I was really enjoying overtaking people but I had a bit of a problem with Bernoldi who chopped me a bit aggressively into Turn 1 when I was committed to the move.

I was up to ninth and running comfortably at a similar sort of pace to Mika but then I lost a bit of time with a moment on the grass as I went past David Coulthard who was in trouble. I was trying to pass him before the corner and just caught the marbles (loose rubber on the edge of the corner) and lost grip. I had no choice but to go across the grass straight-line the corner and come out the other side. I was rally crossing for a while! The car is strong though and there was no damage. The crew managed to pull some grass out of the radiators at my first stop which prevented any worries about the engine overheating.

As the race developed I actually had the car up into sixth place and was starting to think about getting a point. I had Felipe Massa covered. I could see where I was quicker and where he was better and I had all the angles weighed up. So long as I came out of the pits ahead of him after my second stop the point was certainly on the cards.

The balance didn't feel quite as good on the second set of rubber as it did on the first and unfortunately there was a misunderstanding when I came in for my second stop. I don't know quite what happened but I arrived just after my team mate had left and my tyres weren't ready for me. They put the fuel in and then to save time they put the same set of tyres back on and I had to go to the end on them. By that time the Sauber had gone by and so it was seventh place at the end of the day. Having said that I was extremely pleased with the work of the entire team. The pit stop problem was very minimal and all part of our huge learning process this year.

It was disappointing not to match Mika's point from Australia but that's racing. On the positive side it was great to enjoy the performance of the car and I think we probably surprised a few people. That gives me confidence for the rest of the season.

From here it's back home for a week. Mika tests in Barcelona this week before going to Brazil and then I do a test in Valencia after Interlagos. It's a busy schedule but I'm going to enjoy a few days at home first.