Friday March 29th, 2002

Allan McNish warned against over-confidence in the potential of his Toyota team on Friday after setting a sensational third-fastest time in practice for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Scot came close to scoring a point for his new Toyota team in Malaysia but said a top six finish at Interlagos will be tough to achieve.

"I didn't think it was possible to score points in Malaysia but then we nearly did," said McNish. "You always have to go to the race thinking that you can, but to be honest it will be much harder here.

"It is very much dependent on where we are in qualifying but I think we always have this potential given the right circumstances. It is good to see the lap time was there."

Toyota had not expected to perform as well as they are currently doing after the poor performance of the test car they ran last year in preparation for their Grand Prix debut this season.

But McNish warned that although the performances are currently proving a lot of sceptics wrong, Toyota will have to push hard once they return to Europe as the other teams get their acts together.

"This is actually a very good car, but we have a lot to do when we go back to Europe," he said. "We will still have to make a big step forward. But the team is clicking into gear better and better each day. We go home every time and we think of how we can get better, and it's coming."

Published at 21:07:41 GMT