Trulli expecting more speed

The Italian was the fastest Michelin runner, but was still more than a second adrift of Michael Schumacher's benchmark time - set on Bridgestone tyres. Nevertheless Trulli feels there is plenty of scope to make up time.

"I am confident we can keep making progress as the track improves," he said, "and am I looking forward to the new format qualifying session tomorrow.

"In general, it was a good trouble-free day for us. We completed our programme on the set-up and the tyres, and I am pleased with the results. So far, the car has been reliable and I think we have a solid base for further improvements."

Alonso, who ended the day fifth fastest, also believes there is more to come: "We still need to improve in terms of the car's balance, and particularly work hard with the data to make the correct tyre choice. We did lots of laps today, which allowed us to improve the set-up quite significantly, and I think we ran a good programme."

Renault's director of engineering Pat Symonds was pleased with his team's progress despite the gap to Ferrari. "Our level of competitiveness is satisfactory," he said. "The fight at the front is predictably close, except of course for the dominant start Ferrari has made. However, I am sure we can look to close that gap.

"As expected, the restrictions imposed by the new regulations make Friday a slightly frustrating day, as we are unable to obtain all the answers we are looking for in the necessarily limited running time. However, a well-disciplined programme saw us make good progress during the two hours, with everything running according to plan."