Fisichella Confident of Strong Finish

The Italian's chances of impressing on Saturday were hampered by his early running slot, the legacy of his exit from the San Marino Grand Prix, but he is hopeful of making progress in Sunday morning's final session.

"I did a clean lap, maybe a little conservative, but the important thing for me was to make up positions and get into the top eight," he said.

"I think things will be better tomorrow morning - Heidfeld will lose positions with his penalty, and Michael (Schumacher) is only two tenths ahead of me, so I hope I can climb up into the top six in qualifying.

"For the race, we have a good pace in longer runs and a good set-up for tomorrow afternoon. The podium is a long way to go from eighth, but I certainly think I can score a good points finish."

Renault are upbeat that their R25 will perform well over long-race stints, with executive director of engineering Pat Symonds predicting varying pace from teams over the course of Sunday's race.

"Tyre preservation will be a key factor to the teams' race pace," he said. "The forecast predicts hot conditions similar to today, and I believe we may see more differences in the tyre performance between teams than so far this year."