Saturday October 16th, 1999

Ferrari

Michael Schumacher: "I expected we would be strong here, but to be one second ahead is surprising. The team had already made a tremendous effort to improve the car before the last race, but the unusual circumstances at the Nurburgring hid this fact. It is a combination of better mechanical set up and some aerodynamic development. Physically, I am in good condition, my neck is fine and I have no worries for the race. I will probably need a drink in the car as I will sweat a lot, but the fact the car handles nicely will make it easier to drive. I only did eight laps as I could see my time would not be beaten and I wanted to keep as many tyres as possible to have greater flexibility in the race. As for the race, I plan to go flat out to the finish, then we will see what the positions are. Of course, if I am in front at the end with Eddie behind me, then I will let him through. I want to thank the team for a great job and I am also very happy that my wife Corinna is here with me as she has been a great help since my accident."

Eddie Irvine "An all Ferrari front row is not bad for tomorrow. The car is pretty much the same as before the Nurburgring, but this is the first time we have shown its full potential. It is a big step forward. I might have gone quicker with another run, but tomorrow is more important than being a hero today. I chose to save my tyres for the race."

Jean Todt: "It is great that the first time we have had both cars on the front row should coincide with Michael's return to racing. Eddie did a great job, especially when compared to his main rivals. We decided not to use all our laps in order to save our tyres. We have completed the first stage, but tomorrow will be more important. We have always said we had to qualify well in order to defend our chances in both championships and today we have done just that. However, tomorrow we will see a hard and tactical race. I am very happy for the team, because after some difficult times we can enjoy this moment until tomorrow. Changeable weather conditions and the high temperatures not normally experienced in Formula 1 could have an effect on the race."

McLaren

David Coulthard: "We have a bit of a gap to ourselves and Schumacher which is a bit of a surprise, and although that is based only on one lap it looks as though we have some work to do before the race tomorrow. I felt that the balance of the car was not quite right which slowed me up, especially in the last sector. There is a real mix of corners and that makes setting up the car more time consuming but I am confident that once I have discussed today's sessions with the engineers we will be much closer to the competition."

Mika Hakkinen: "Of course I would prefer to be further up the grid for the race but my starting position is not a problem. The most important thing is the race and I will be fully focused on achieving the best result that I can."

Ron Dennis: "A tough qualifying today and in the circumstances the grid positions are understandable. Our focus in this session was very much biased towards the race strategy, which we believe will ultimately be of benefit to us. We have never known it to be easy and we are looking forward to the fight tomorrow."

Stewart

Johnny Herbert: "I feel so much more confident after my victory at Nurburgring where I proved that I can win and after being quick in last week's Barcelona test things looked encouraging coming to Malaysia. We were quick yesterday and again today and our consistency bodes well for the race. The conditions kept changing throughout the session and we managed to adapt the car very well. It's a real shame that Coulthard relegated me to fifth place on his last lap. I don't think the hot and humid conditions will affect me too much tomorrow. I only really feel it when I sit in the garage or get out of the car. When you are driving you learn to focus, get in to a rhythm, and just forget about it."

Rubens Barrichello: "There is no doubt I could have been knocking on the door of the top four if you look at my first sector time on my last flying lap. Unfortunately I was blocked by another car which ruined any chance of improving on sixth place. But being on the third row is a great effort by the team. We kept an eye on the movement of clouds and tried to time our runs when there was a little bit of cloud cover but I think generally the conditions improved as the session went on. I think the tyres stood up pretty well so it's going to be an interesting race."

Paul Stewart, Stewart-Ford Chief Operating Officer: "It's nice going into the penultimate race with both cars on the third row of the grid. The performance is indicative of what we have been capable of as a team all season long. If we get a good, clean start we should pick up further Championship points. A special word of thanks to Harold, our simulation driver, for his sterling efforts this weekend."

Tyrone Johnson, Technical Manager, Ford Racing Research and Vehicle Technology: "Congratulations to everybody in the Stewart-Ford team, Visteon and Cosworth Racing in making all the necessary efforts to get both cars in the top six at the team's first visit to the Sepang circuit. We will stick with our original plan of using Series 3 engines for tomorrow's race as this specification has now proved itself at this circuit."

Jordan

Damon Hill: "Today was tougher than we had expected and I cannot say I am really satisfied to be 9th. Having said that, we could see from our progress this morning that we were not going to be as competitive as we had expected. The lack of grip makes it difficult to really push without spinning off. This track has produced an unusual qualifying performance which is interesting in that it gives us some clues as to where there might be some weaknesses with the car. But unfortunately we have not been able to find the right balance for now."

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: "I am really disappointed to be so low down on the grid, especially when I am used to qualifying in the top two to three rows. My head rest came loose under braking and hit me from behind, causing me to spin. I then took the T car and had to abort my second run because of a brake problem. But the weekend is not over and we hope that we will have more luck in tomorrow's race."

BAR

Jacques Villeneuve: "We based our set-up work on Friday's session in which we ran old tyres. Unfortunately the track changed a lot today in the heat, and as we had prepared scrubbed sets for qualifying, we only had two sets of new ones left. Basically we made a wrong decision last night and paid for it today, as we had to keep changing the set-up between old and new rubber. In spite of that, I'm looking forward to the race - the track is wide and it's an easy one on which to make mistakes, so there should be opportunities for overtaking."

Ricardo Zonta: "The car felt good right from the beginning of qualifying, but perhaps I did not put all my best sectors together on my fastest lap. I think I could have made the top eight, but I wanted to be sure of a reasonable time and I might have been a little too cautious, losing an opportunity to be faster. The team did a great job, especially my engineer Mick Cook - I'm very glad he's back again after his illness. I like the new circuit very much, although I had no track time at all to enjoy it on Friday."

Craig Pollock: "It's a good sign that our drivers have qualified close together, but we were not able to replicate our best Friday performance, which is a pity. We experienced no mechanical problems, and that has to give us confidence for the race."

Prost

Olivier Panis: "I have had a lot of problems with my car since yesterday and I was only able to do half the number of laps that most of the other drivers did. This meant I had to do a lot of work to find the right set-ups for this qualifying session. But I satisfied with this result, even if it is not that evident. I would truly like to thank my team of mechanics as without their motivation and their efficient work, I would not have been able to do the qualifying lap that I wanted. I start in 12th place, we don't have the same level of performance that we had at the last Grand Prix, but I am confident."

Jarno Trulli: "What happened to me today is unusual. I tried everything without being able to improve the car. I wasn't able to find any grip. This morning, on tyres which had done 20 laps, with an engine down on power, and a slower track, I did the same time as I did this afternoon in qualifying. We are going to pore over the information to try and find the reasons."

Alain Prost: "We have had a lot of problems since the weekend began and our drivers have not had enough time to learn the track well. They both complain of lack of grip and we have to work hard to make the tyres work well. Olivier did a good job in his penultimate run. It is a 'so-so' kind of result. Our car is not so good in the heat, a problem we already knew about. The weather conditions are difficult to predict here and the race could be very incident-filled."

Minardi

Marc Gene: "Well, it was my best qualifying in the whole season, so far. During Yesterday's and Today's free practice I did very few runs due to some problems which prevented us from working thoroughly on the car. Furthermore, I had not learnt the track, yet. I, therefore, started the qualifying session well aware that I missed some laps. However, my feeling with the car has always been very good. We tried different set-ups but I didn't feel them convincing. Then, in the last two runs, we changed again the car's set-up and I felt it was going far better. In the end, the last lap turned out very good. I am really satisfied: I should say this was my best qualifying, even better than Hockenheim."

Luca Badoer: "I did a very disappointing qualifying session. I've always experienced problems of brake balance in the final part of the track where I did a lot of mistakes. My time was, therefore, high. For tomorrow I expect a very tough competition although the race is usually better for us and it is tomorrow's outcome that counts."

Cesare Fiorio, sporting director: "After the brilliant performance at the Nurburgring where the Team scored the tenth place in the Championship, here in Sepang we'll try to defend this place. In order to do so, we'll try to create the best conditions for our drivers in tomorrow's race."