Friday March 15th, 2002

Australian Mark Webber was brought down to earth on Friday's practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix, where the Minardi driver endured a torrid time and finished at the bottom of the timesheets.

Webber, who was a hero after finishing in fifth place at the season opening Australian Grand Prix, could only complete six laps in today's practice after spinning off the track in the first session and suffering an engine problem in the second.

"It was not a very good day from my point of view, but it can happen very easily on Fridays when, unfortunately, you cannot use the T-car," said Webber.

"I made a mistake in the first session and finished in the gravel, and then we had an engine problem in the second session, when I had just gone for my first lap out of the pits.

"We therefore have done only two timed laps. Obviously, I would have liked to get into the circuit a bit more as it looks like a challenging track, but now I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Teammate Alex Yoong, competing in front of his home crowd for the first time, had a more positive day at the wheel of the second Asiatech-powered PS02, finishing in 19th place.

"It was not too bad a day for me and, happily, it was totally different from the Friday we had in Australia. I was able to go out for the whole of the two sessions and piled up a lot of laps," he said.

"The new tyres Michelin have made available for us here seem good, but obviously we haven't tested with them before, so we still need to do quite a bit of set-up work to improve the car. But it is a good start."

Published at 10:00:44 GMT