Renault hopeful of solving grip issues

Although world champion Fernando Alonso was the quickest race driver with the second fastest time, he and ninth-fastest teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, struggled with a lack of grip throughout the day that left the handling of their R26s unpredictable.

Renault director of engineering Pat Symonds said: "We were rather surprised at the poor grip levels we encountered today, which were lower than expected. In spite of this though, we completed some good tests and collected the data we need to improve the car set-up overnight.

"The balance was as normal in low grip conditions, that's to say unpredictable, but we are clear on what we need to do to improve the situation tomorrow. The Michelin tyres are working well, but we can see even from the Friday times that there are a number of cars which are very close in performance."

Alonso was hopeful that the situation would improve by Saturday morning, when the field are more likely to put rubber down as they get more mileage under their belts ahead of qualifying.

"We had our normal Friday: systems checks in the morning, then some runs to get a feel for the tyres and try and improve the balance," he explained. "The grip level was very low, as is quite usual for a Friday.

"That makes the car a bit inconsistent to drive but we will make some changes tonight and, as the circuit grip improves tomorrow, I am sure things will come together.

"The pace looks quite good but the times are very close, and we need to do more running to get a clearer picture of who our rivals will be."

Fisichella added: "The low grip was the main difficulty with the car today, but we still managed to make some good changes on the set-up: some worked, some didn't, but we collected plenty of information to analyse tonight.

"The consistency was good when I did a longer run this afternoon, so we need to look at how to find first lap performance tomorrow, and to improve the balance of the car to feel completely confident. So far, though, it doesn't look too bad."