19.03.2004 FERRARI ON THE PACE AFTER OPENING FRIDAY FREE PRACTICE SESSIONS IN MALAYSIA

Jean Todt: 'This was a closely contested Friday, characterised by very high temperatures. Obviously, as we do not know what fuel levels our rivals were running, it is difficult to interpret the results. Along with Bridgestone, we worked on a comparison of the two types of tyre at our disposal. We still have some work to do on fine tuning the set-up on both cars. From what we have seen today, I think the rest of the weekend should see a close contest and we will be on the pace.'

Michael Schumacher: 'It was an interesting Friday session, we did all the work we wanted to do. The car seems to be working well and I am quite happy with its balance, but there is still room for improvement. It certainly seems to be a step forward from what we have seen in the past here. But the signs are that it will be a tight competition tomorrow.'

Rubens Barrichello: 'We had a bigger advantage over the others in the morning session, but I am not concerned about our performance this afternoon, as we ran the whole time in race configuration and we can be happy with our work. I think we still have the edge over our rivals.'

Ross Brawn : 'It was a useful day during which we did a lot of race work. The other teams seem much closer, which is perhaps more normal and is what we expected here. We gathered plenty of information, but we are not completely happy with the car yet. Tonight we will study the data and make some progress tomorrow. As far as tyre choice is concerned, we did plenty of long runs in race conditions with both types of tyre, so we have all the information we need.'

Michael Schumacher: 4th 1.35.094 22 laps chassis 234, Rubens Barrichello: 10th 1.35.373 19 laps chassis 236, Temperatures: air 35/37°C, track 46/49°C