Briatore: Renault still have work to do

Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen had delivered Renault's best qualifying performance of the season with fifth and sixth on the grid, but they could not repeat that result in the race.

Kovalainen's afternoon was wrecked when Jarno Trulli tipped him into a spin at the hairpin on the first lap, while Fisichella struggled with a heavy fuel load in his second stint to finish sixth.

Briatore said: "Things looked good after qualifying, but the race showed us that we still have some way to go.

"Heikki had his race spoiled on lap one through no fault of his own. Giancarlo drove well but the car seemed too heavy in the middle stint, and it cost too much time. He showed good aggression to keep Fernando behind, but the story of the afternoon is that we still have work to do.

"The gap with BMW is almost nothing, but we need to convert the promise of Saturday afternoon into hard points on Sunday."

Fisichella believes the pace of the Renault during the French Grand Prix does point towards the team not being too far away from the opposition now, although he was clearly frustrated at having lost a place to Nick Heidfeld.

"I did the best possible today," he said. "The pace was very close to BMW, and even closer to the other teams in front too, as I was able to keep Fernando behind me on equal fuel loads at the end of the race. So for sure, we are getting better and better, and moving forward all the time.

"Ultimately though, I lost one position this afternoon, and that's not good, especially when it's a BMW that goes in front.

"The main problem was the understeer with the high fuel load in the second stint, which cost me too much time.

"I had a small battle with Fernando early in the race, but he was much lighter and got past. We were running together again at the end, though, and it was much closer. The soft tyres grained a little bit in the first few laps of the final stint, and he was much faster than me through turn three, so we had a good battle for a few laps.

"Then the tyre situation improved, and I was able to build a little gap. That was quite satisfying and it shows the car is getting better. Now, we need to try and close the points difference with BMW next weekend in Silverstone."

Kovalainen added: "Well, my race was over on the first lap really and it's a big missed opportunity for me. I was turning through Turn 5 when Jarno hit me, spun me round and punctured the right-rear tyre.

"I had to pit, lost nearly a lap and then it felt like I was slowing down for blue flags almost every lap. The times seemed quite competitive when I was in clean air, but it was hard to get into a rhythm to be honest.

"I was racing around the same group of leaders all race, which shows I was on the pace, but there's nothing you can do after an incident like that. But qualifying and practice showed we are getting on the pace step by step, so I am looking forward to Silverstone in seven days' time.