Renault putting on brave face

Drivers Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso both failed to finish the second session of the day after finishing 12th and 13th in the earlier session. Trulli stopped on the track with a fuel system problem while Alonso lost his right-rear tyre after picking up a puncture.

Fortunately for Trulli, the engine problem which stopped him during the afternoon will not require his engine to be changed, as under the new rules, that would have meant he dropped 10 places on the grid.

Trulli said: "It wasn't the best day ever, but I'm not too disappointed. We certainly could have done more mileage, but we nevertheless managed to improve the car during the day. Sure, it was a bit of bad luck to have an engine problem but fortunately, we don't think it is too serious. Better for that to happen today than on Sunday.

"The circuit itself is interesting. The track cleaned up well and we hope it will continue improving over the weekend."

Alonso said the track was not particularly demanding thanks to the long straights, but said that the amount of dust off-line meant that if he deviated from the racing line, it took at least half a lap to clean the tyres.

"Our objective for today wasn't to get a definitive set-up, but rather to do lots of running to learn the track," he said. "We didn't make too many set-up changes because the track was changing a lot."

Although the team is confident that it can make up lost ground, executive director of engineering Pat Symonds could not disguise his disappointment at he day's events.

"We expected to have more questions than answers at the end of the day," he explained. "Indeed this is the case. We lost Jarno's car very early and Fernando had a hydraulic problem, which prevented him from completing as many laps as we'd hoped.

"We feared tyre choice would be difficult because of the sand but, in the end, this will not really be the case."