Kovalainen hopeful of strong race

The Renault driver, who has scored just one point in his first three races, will start tomorrow's event from eighth position, despite using only the harder tyres in the final part of qualifying.

The world champions have decided to save a new set of the softer tyres in order to boost their chances in tomorrow's race.

"The car felt good straight away in the first part of qualifying, and I thought then that we had a good opportunity to make it into the final round this afternoon," said Kovalainen.

"The situation should have been more comfortable in the second part of the session, but I had traffic on both of my timed laps.

"Even so, I think I did a good job today, and got the maximum from the car. It's nice to make it through to the final part of qualifying for the first time, but you don't get any points on Saturday. The big job is still ahead of us, and hopefully we can maintain this strong pace tomorrow afternoon."

Teammate Giancarlo Fisichella will start the race from 10th position, and the Italian is also hopeful of a good result thanks to their strategy.

"We went with the hard tyres in the final part of qualifying, and I think it was a good choice because we have a good strategy for the race," said the Italian.

"The session this afternoon wasn't perfect for me: I didn't complete my programme this morning during the third practice session, and it meant that I wasn't totally comfortable with the car when I went out for the first laps in qualifying.

"I thought I had a brake problem on my first run so I aborted it, and that made it quite tight to get past the first round.

"After that, the performance was more normal even though I didn't have complete confidence in the car, and looking at the times, it seems that the gap to the other teams is a little bit less, so perhaps we have made a step forward. My aim now is to do a good race, and maintain my points-scoring record."