Australia Sunday quotes: Renault

"From a personal point of view, I got the best that I could from the package today, but I was struggling with overall grip from the start. The car was handling well, and we had good reliability - but so did the other teams at the front. Hopefully we can begin catching up from the next race."

Heikki Kovalainen - 10th: "This may have been my Grand Prix debut, but to be honest, there is very little to remember from it - and lots to forget. I didn't have a great race: there were too many mistakes, and my performance just wasn't controlled enough. I had hoped to be able to move up through the field and gain positions. Straight away from the start, though, I was struggling even to hold on to other cars.

"My feeling right now is that the next race cannot get a lot worse. But I will stay positive, work hard and try to make sure I have a better weekend in Malaysia. I will be driving all three days of the Sepang test in ten days' time, which will help me learn the circuit and give me a good starting point for the race weekend. Then, my objective will be to improve in every area for my second Grand Prix."

Flavio Briatore, Managing Director: "This afternoon showed us that we have a lot of work to do to be competitive again. It wasn't a strong race for the team in any department. Giancarlo drove hard to defend his position at the end, and did a good job, while Heikki had a very tough start to his career. But we were expecting more at every level, and we need to work hard to find the performance."

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: "Today's race reflected the trends we have seen in winter testing but, contrary to our expectations, somewhat magnified them too. As a team, we clearly have some work ahead of us before we can challenge at the front. Giancarlo's race was well-structured and he resisted well against intense pressure from Massa at the end. Heikki spent most of his race in traffic, but he pushed hard all the way.

"A couple of mistakes cost him positions, and he found the car particularly difficult to drive on the last set of tyres. We now have a much clearer idea of the car's performance, and three days of testing ahead of us in Malaysia before the next Grand Prix. Our focus must be on improving our performance so we can take the fight to the current pace-setters."