Team SAUBER PETRONAS driver Felipe Massa finished 10th in today's PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang, but unfortunately Jacques Villeneuve spun and retired on the 27th lap.

Jacques Villeneuve: "From the start of the race I was aiming to be as consistent as possible. I was able to build on the progress that we started to make with the car in qualifying yesterday afternoon and again this morning. In particular I am gaining more and more confidence with the brakes and was locking the fronts momentarily going into Turn One, the way I like to. Then on lap 27 I locked the rears braking hard into the corner and spun, and couldn't get restarted."

Felipe Massa: "I think our race pace was reasonable compared to qualifying yesterday and this morning, and I was able to follow Michael for many laps. After my second stop I started having a problem with oversteer in Turn 12. On one lap I had to take a lot of the kerb because of that, and after that the car seemed to lose a lot of rear downforce and was almost undriveable at competitive speed."

Peter Sauber (Team Principal): "This was a difficult weekend for us, especially here in PETRONAS' homeland where we had so hoped to perform strongly. But what we saw today were the facts, and I'm sure that everyone in the team understands that we have to redouble our efforts in order to improve quickly."

2005 Malaysian Grand Prix - Main Page

Sunday Qualifying

Weather: sunny and hot.

Drivers (Chassis)
Villeneuve (C24-03) 1:34.887s, 16th 1:38.108s, 16th 3:12.995s, 16th
Massa (C24-02) 1:34.151s, 13th 1:37.733s, 15th 3:11.884s, 14th

Team SAUBER PETRONAS drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve will start today's PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix from 14th and 16th positions respectively after this morning's final qualifying session.

Jacques Villeneuve: "Considering our position yesterday, we decided just to concentrate on our strategy for second qualifying. We're not very fast, but the key today will be to be there at the end of the race."

Felipe Massa: "I had lots of understeer and was quite slow as a result. I hope we will be better in the race, as tyre degradation and an ongoing reduction in fuel load improve the balance again."

2005 Malaysian Grand Prix - Main Page

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