Kovalainen: I'm not going for pole

The Finn is keen to improve on the start he made to the 2007 season when he struggled in qualifying with a poorly-handling Renault, suffered numerous setbacks in an error-strewn race, and eventually finished 10th.

"I need to do many things correctly and I'm certainly not aiming for pole position," he said.

"I need all weekend to work better with my engineers, my mechanics, the whole team to make sure the car is well set up and I am full of confidence for qualifying and the race.

"Hopefully towards the end of the season I can fight for the top positions and if things go well, even early on. But for the moment the priority is just to start better than last year and not aim for pole."

Renault team boss Flavio Briatore panned Kovalainen's rookie performance in Australia last year as 'rubbish', suggesting that he had been mysteriously replaced by an unknown twin.

A more fragile ego would have been torn to shreds by the criticism but Kovalainen, who fought back to take a fine second place in Japan towards the end of the season, said he had emerged stronger for it.

"I've worked with Flavio for many years and I've learned a lot from him. He's given me strong advice and comments when I was in GP2 and F3.

"I had no problem with that. It did sound more dramatic, and people probably thought that's not fair, but I prefer it that way," he added.

"When there is a problem or things go bad it's better to say directly. I never took it that personally and I never had any problem with Flavio."

Kovalainen said he was looking forward to Sunday's race at Albert Park as a chance to put the record straight, even if he was more intent on producing a solid performance than gunning for immediate glory.