Renault buoyed by tyre breakthrough

The French outfit, world champions for the past two seasons, struggled for pace at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, with Giancarlo Fisichella coming home a distant fifth.

Teammate Heikki Kovalainen endured a torrid weekend and could only finish in tenth place.

Renault believe they have lost out more than their rivals from the switch from Michelin to Bridgestone this season, and they have been working hard to solve their issues.

But this week's test at Sepang has left the world champions upbeat about their prospects for the Malaysian Grand Prix, with head of race engineering Alan Permane expecting their drivers to be able to be more competitive both in qualifying and in the race.

"We had new parts flown in, which took us some time to fit, so we did not do much mileage but today we had an excellent day," Permane told autosport.com after the Sepang test.

"I would say we ticked all the boxes finally, we made some very good improvements on the set-up compared to Melbourne.

"Obviously everyone had new bits, they all looked like what they should be doing, we found some pace not from the new parts only but from the car.

"I think it will reflect on qualifying and on the race. The car is better. It will not just be better in the race only or in qualifying only, but in general it is a better car."

Permane reckons the breakthrough in performance will come mainly from a better understanding of Bridgestone's tyres.

"Bridgestone have been working very well. There were no problems with wear, no problems with warm up, no balance issues at all, it has been fine," he added. "One of the things we have been working on a lot is understanding the tyres. We are getting more and more on top of it as the time goes on.

"I think we understand more. A part of the reasons the car is better is because of how it is using the tyres."

Kovalainen had two days of running at Sepang during the three days of the test, as Renault wanted to give him a chance to lift his spirits following his dismal debut in Australia.

The Finn finished the final day of work on top of the timesheets, and Permane claims the rookie is now very confident for the next race.

"Heikki did not have a very good weekend in Melbourne, but he leaves here very, very confident," Permane said. "He has done some good long runs, and he is very happy and confident.

"We wanted to give Heikki a good run to learn the track and learn the car. Fisi has enough experience and one day of running would have made no difference. It is better for him to stay at home and relax. Especially after Heikki did not have a good run in Melbourne it made sense that he would do as much as possible here."