Renault upbeat despite 'traumatic' day

The Renault team were encouraged with their performance in Friday practice for the Australian Grand Prix, despite a troubled first day of the season

"Our first Friday under the new rules was a little more traumatic than we had expected," said the team's chief of engineering Pat Symonds after practice.

Both Italian Giancarlo Fisichella and teammate Heikki Kovalainen had their running cut short after suffering fuel pump problems in the afternoon session. The morning session had been hit by rain, making the work less significant.

Renault said they would investigate the cause of the failures.

Despite the problems, Fisichella posted the fourth fastest time of the day, and the Italian was pleased with Renault's long-run pace.

"It was a bit of a mixed day for us - the performance of the car looked quite encouraging, especially on the longer runs, but our problems meant we didn't complete the programme," said Fisichella.

"The set-up was not fantastic this morning, especially on the first lap, but we made good progress, and it was much more consistent during the afternoon session.

"The hard tyre is working well on our car, but we are suffering from some graining with the soft tyre at the moment, which is costing us performance. We still need to fine-tune the set-up, but the handling is OK, and now we need to try and match our long-run performance, on the first lap with new tyres."

Finn Kovalainen, in his first outing as a Grand Prix driver, finished down in 18th position after managing just 10 laps before his car stopped on track.

The rookie was unable to complete a single lap with the softer Bridgestone tyres, and he finished nearly three seconds off the pace.

"It wasn't a perfect first day for me, but we got something done even so," he said. "It was only a minor problem that stopped the car, and that meant I lost the whole of the dry, second session - and I didn't manage to run the soft tyre at any point.

"When I was out on track, though, the car balance felt good and I feel I have learned the track without too many problems. It is a good, challenging layout - and it makes a nice change from driving round Jerez and Barcelona like I did most of last year.

"Of course, it will be important for me to make good use of tomorrow morning's session to catch up the lost time from today, but I think our pace looks pretty strong - and I am confident we will be in good shape."