Briatore praises Piquet's 'amazing' drive

Piquet, starting from 17th position, finished in second place to give Renault their first podium of the season so far.

The Brazilian benefited from a one-stop strategy and the safety car period to climb up to third position, and he moved into the lead when Lewis Hamilton and Nick Heidfeld pitted.

Although he came under pressure from Ferrari's Felipe Massa near the end of the race, Piquet managed to keep the gap consistent to give Renault eight points.

"Well, he was a little bit lucky with the safety car," Briatore told autosport.com after the race. "After that, Nelsinho drove amazingly.

"Sure, the McLaren was quicker. Hamilton especially deserved to win and we deserved to be second, because we were the second quickest car in the second half of the race."

Despite the morale-boosting result, Briatore was cautious when asked if he expected Piquet to be stronger from now on following a difficult first half of the year.

"I think we have to be careful in this, because Nelson is very young but I think he is naturally very positive," he added.

Piquet's teammate Fernando Alonso endured a race to forget, finishing down in 11th place.

"It was not the right race for him," said Briatore of Alonso. "The start was not fantastic. And after that when you race and you are fighting, if you try and overtake somebody, somebody else can overtake you. But at least he was fighting.

"It is great for the team that we got eight points."

The result allowed Renault to move into sixth place in the standings, just two points behind Toyota.