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Things will be different in Sepang - Liuzzi

Tonio Liuzzi: "I think things will be different there" © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Narain Karthikeyan
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• Tonio Liuzzi

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• HRT

Read Tonio Liuzzi's full ESPNF1 column here

Tonio Liuzzi is confident HRT will be in a much better position to qualify for the Malaysian Grand Prix than it was for the Australian Grand Prix.

The team put the F111 together at the last minute at Albert Park and missed out on most of the free practice running ahead of qualifying. Liuzzi and team-mate Narain Karthikeyan then failed to get within 107% of the fastest time in Q1, meaning they were not allowed to start the race.

But Liuzzi believes the car will be in much better shape with a number of upgrades, including the 2011 specification front wing.

"We will have lots of new parts on the car, the proper front nose and wing, some better rear dampers - we have a lot of things to change for Malaysia," he told ESPNF1. "So I think we will be in much better shape."

However, he warned that Sepang, with its downforce-dependant, high-speed corners, was one of the more difficult circuits to get within 107% for a back marker.

"I think things will be different there but, unfortunately, if I was to say at the beginning of the year which track would be worst for the 107% rule I would have said Malaysia because of its characteristics," he added. "Even so, I still think we can show improvement compared to Australia and good pace compared to Virgin."

He said the most important thing was to hit the track on Friday in order to debug the car and better understand it.

"For us racking up the kilometres is the most important thing," he said. "At the moment we are fighting against people with thousands of kilometres and a lot of information about their cars, while we have just 40 kilometres."

Karthikeyan, who was over a second off Liuzzi in Australia, is also confident, telling Reuters: "If we get the new front wing - not if, we are going to get it - we are reasonably confident that we will qualify and if all these things happen then we don't have any excuse not to qualify for Malaysia.

"We respect the 107% rule. We are a serious team. When it all gets kicking off, I think we are going to surprise a few people."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.