Slow start for Renault at Spa

It will only be the second time that Alonso has raced at the historic circuit so the Spaniard spent his time working through a tyre programme whilst familiarising himself with the revised circuit.

"I have only raced here once before, three years ago, so my aims for today were simple: to select the tyres, and then to get used to the circuit again and build up my confidence," Alonso said. "The tyre choice is quite straightforward and although I think we have some more performance to come from the car, overall we are quite quick. I am very confident that we can be competitive for the rest of the weekend."

While Alonso was relatively optimistic after his first day, team-mate Trulli was downbeat after struggling with inconsistent handling and finishing the day a lowly 16th.

"I had a bad day to be honest," the Italian admitted. "I struggled with the handling of the car - there was very little grip, and that makes the handling inconsistent, switching between oversteer and understeer. If it rains all day tomorrow, it will be tough to improve the car, but we will work hard on the data this evening to try and find what is causing the problem."