Kovalainen cautious despite Friday pace

The Renault driver completed 39 laps during the second practice session, and ended up splitting the two McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. But despite the encouraging signs, the young Finn said that there was still some work to be done.

"It's always better to be second than second last!" he grinned. "But to be honest, our program on Friday quite often seems to be a little bit different to other teams, and that's why sometimes we are at the bottom of the sheet, and sometimes we are at the front.

"Hopefully today was a good sign that our competitiveness relative to the others is good, but we are not reading too much into it. It's more important to get a good feeling with the car, make sure that it is 100 percent ahead of qualifying and that I can push everything out of it."

While Kovalainen was in no hurry to talk up his chances at the Hungaroring, he said that improvements to the R27 had done much for his confidence as a driver.

"At the beginning of the season, the car certainly wasn't like it was last year," he said. "Last year, there was a lot of confidence in the car - I could drive almost anywhere I wanted on the track, and if I missed the braking a little bit then I could just brake a bit more, turn in a bit more, and still make the corner.

"This year, especially at the beginning of the year, that wasn't the case. For me it was difficult to understand that I needed to slow down a bit - I wanted to push and push and push, and drive faster.

"And now as we improve the car there is more confidence, especially at the front of the car. I can push a little bit more, and the car is a little bit more forgiving. If I go a bit too fast somewhere, I can still make the corner."