Kovalainen surprised by BMW pace

The two teams had seemed closely-matched on Friday and Saturday, prompting Kovalainen to suggest after qualifying that the gap between the teams may have closed.

In the race however, the Finn finished well down the order after being involved in an opening-lap skirmish with Jarno Trulli.

Teammate Giancarlo Fisichella managed to pick up some points for sixth, but he had both of the BMWs ahead of him, and struggled to match them for race pace.

"Probably we underestimated BMW a little bit, or we overestimated our own pace on Friday," Kovalainen confessed.

"We thought that we would be a little bit more competitive in the race, but BMW seemed to have good race pace, and compared to us they were a little bit stronger. It was a bit of a surprise, but in any case it was a part of racing."

Nevertheless, Kovalainen said that he was optimistic that things were moving in the right direction, even if Renault face a tough task to take another step up in the next few races.

"The game goes on, we'll try to improve our package and next time we'll try again. In any case, we are a little bit closer than before, so we can carry on like this and just keep improving.

"It will be very difficult to catch BMW by Silverstone, but hopefully in the medium-term we can start challenging the cars in front a bit better.

"The most important thing is that we keep improving all the time, and we keep working as we've been working so far, and eventually we will catch up to Ferrari and McLaren. If not this year, then next year."