Kubica warns against overoptimism

Kubica qualified on the first row in Monte Carlo and went on to finish in third place behind the two Red Bulls, thus claiming his second podium in six races.

However, the Renault driver is not getting carried away, and he is aware that it will be hard to repeat the performance this weekend in Turkey.

"The race in Monaco was our strongest performance so far this season, but it's important that this result doesn't make us overoptimistic because I think it will be difficult to repeat that pace this weekend," said Kubica.

"However, I still think we can be competitive in Turkey because the circuit characteristics are similar to Barcelona where we had good performance from the car. I'm also hoping that the new updates we have for this race will help us close the gap and qualify a little bit higher up than we did in Barcelona."

The Pole admitted he has been surprised by the amount of points scored so far, despite a promising winter of testing.

"We had some idea during winter testing of what the car was capable of, we understood its strengths and we worked on maximising them," he added.

"But I'm still a bit surprised to have scored so many points, which shows what a good job we are doing as a team. We have taken the opportunities that have come our way, especially in unusual races like Australia or the wet qualifying session in Malaysia.

"We've also taken our opportunities when the car has been strong, as we did in Monaco. So I think we can be very pleased with what we have achieved and proud of all the hard work at the factory to bring new parts for the car every weekend. But we know there is still a long way to go this season and we need to continue pushing hard and improving the car."

Team boss Eric Boullier said he is not making predictions for this weekend's race given the different nature of the circuit when compared with Monaco.

"I never like to make predictions, but we have to remember that Istanbul Park is a circuit with completely different characteristics to Monaco. We know that the car works well on tight, twisty circuits, but, as we saw in Barcelona, we still need to find some performance on circuits with a more classic layout.

"We will have some more developments in time for this weekend and they should place us somewhere between our Barcelona and Monaco pace, which will give us a good opportunity to fight well inside the points."