Sunday March 17th, 2002

Scot Allan McNish backed his Toyota team after Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix following a mistake during a pit stop which cost him a probable point in only his second Formula One race.

McNish was sixth and pulling away from the Sauber of Brazilian Felipe Massa when he came in for his second stop and the team was not ready with the tyres for the right hand side of his car.

The heavily-backed Toyota squad has entered Formula One this year, and the incident looked like a simple mistake from a team which has not yet got itself in the groove.

But Scot McNish was quick to dismiss the calamity as an inexperience error and blamed the problems on confusion arising from team-mate Mika Salo's unexpected arrival in the pits just minutes before.

"I don't think it was a novice mistake," said McNish. "We were planned and we came in at the right time but it was just that basically both cars arrived a bit too close to each other.

"I think (the team is professional) because I really don't think you can take the situation at the pitstop as a guide.

"You have got to take it as a whole over the weekend both in Australia and in Europe, and I personally think as a whole they have done the job better than I expected in every situation."

Toyota spent last year testing their initial design before introducing their TF102 for this season. They even ran a simulation race weekend as they prepared for their 2002 debut in Formula One.

Published at 17:21:11 GMT