Renault plays down loss of track time

The Pole managed significantly fewer laps than his main rivals, while his team-mate Vitaly Petrov was only 14th, but Renault's chief race engineer Alan Permane said the team remained confident.

"Robert lost most of the second session with a hydraulic leak, and wasn't able to run a new set of soft tyres to set a time - he only went out for a couple of laps at the end just to check the car," Permane explained.

"As for Vitaly, he's still learning the circuit and finding his optimum braking points, so we know there's a lot more time to come from him. It doesn't look fantastic on the timesheets today, but I'm confident we'll be in our normal place tomorrow."

When asked if today's issues had disrupted Renault's schedule, Permane replied: "Not really. Our limited data from today indicates that the softer compound will be the quicker qualifying tyre, so we will simply try to run our normal programme, have a trouble-free session with both cars, and prepare thoroughly for qualifying."

Kubica admitted that his lack of mileage today made it hard to judge Renault's form, though.

"It was a more difficult Friday than usual because we had a problem with the hydraulics during the second session, when the track was at its best, so I only completed about five clean laps today," he said. "That makes it very difficult to say where we stand relative to the competition."