Fisichella stays cautious for qualifying

The Renault driver, looking to end a poor run of results with three race finishes outside the point-paying positions, was third quickest in second practice at Monza, only behind championship leaders Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.

Fisichella was pleased with his day's work, but was still cautious for tomorrow's qualifying.

"Today went a bit better than normal, and I am more optimistic than at the last few races," said Fisichella. "We worked through the programme without any problems, we made good progress with the set-up of the car and by the end of the day, the balance was not too bad.

"Qualifying will be tough, especially because the times seem even closer than usual here at Monza. But it was a good first day and a positive start to the weekend."

Teammate Heikki Kovalainen finished as ninth fastest after what the Finn labelled as a tricky day.

"I had quite a tricky day," he said. "I flat spotted the tyres on the first lap this morning, which delayed the programme a bit, and I didn't find the same good balance that I had at the test last week. So the car isn't feeling too good at the moment, but we are working to improve the situation.

"However, reliability was good and we compared the tyres, which is the main objective on Friday. Now we need to work on the set-up overnight, and look carefully where we can make improvements.

"I know I can do a good job with the engineers, so I am confident things will be better tomorrow."