Saturday March 16th, 2002

Minardi boss Paul Stoddart is looking forward to a high attrition race on Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix to continue with his team's progress.

Australian Mark Webber, who two weeks ago in Melbourne finished in fifth place to give Minardi their first points since the 1999 season, could only qualify in 21st position, only ahead of teammate Alex Yoong in the second Asiatech-powered PS02.

But Stoddart remained positive despite their showing and was hoping the reliability of his team's cars could help them finish in the top ten on Sunday.

"Despite occupying the front row of the grid at the wrong end, tomorrow we can always hope for an action-packed start, as in Melbourne, with Alex and Mark both able to avoid the incidents and take the chequered flag in points-scoring positions," joked Stoddart, whose team are backed by Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.

"On a slightly more serious note, however, qualifying both cars less than four seconds off the pole position time is not a bad result from our point of view. As for the race, the temperature could prove to be a 'car killer', in which case we might still have a chance at a top-10 result."

Published at 09:16:07 GMT