Fisichella predicts difficult weekend

The Italian was 19th and 18th respectively in the two practice sessions in Magny-Cours and feels that only progress with the car's set-up will allow them to move off the back of the field.

"We went through the scheduled programme today and made some steps forward, but we are still relatively far away from the others and have some work to do," said Fisichella.

"The grip level was quite poor in both sessions and we had some understeer in the high speed corners. We also compared the tyres and the softer compound works OK, but it will still be a difficult weekend."

Teammate Adrian Sutil had an equally disappointing day, completing only 13 laps in the morning session because of a brake problem and then struggling to find grip in the afternoon practice.

"Overall it was such not a great day as we had a few small technical problems today," said the German. "The main issue was with the brakes and then the tyres overheating. I was struggling under braking, and this morning I lost a lot of the session.

"In the afternoon the track was slower as the temperature increased and it was difficult to get the tyres to work well again, but now we have found the problem and can get it fixed for tomorrow."