Kubica encouraged by Renault gains

Date published : 14 Feb 2010 - 14:43:17

Robert Kubica and his Renault team reckon they are edging back towards the front of the pack following an encouraging week of testing at Jerez.Although the Pole was not at the absolute top of the timesheets during the Jerez tests, he was increasingly happy with the car, which rivals felt was performing very respectably on long runs.On the final day yesterday Kubica felt he had made another big step forward as soon as he had chance to start notching up some mileage on a dry track."We were unlucky again with the weather but it was dry in the afternoon and we managed to improve the car quite a bit," he said."Each day of testing the car feels better and the progress we have made this week confirms that we are moving in the right direction."The team's chief engineer Alan Permane agreed that the Renault R30 was getting quicker and quicker with every day of running."As soon as the track was ready for slicks we went out and worked through a set-up programme and made really good progress," he said."We've managed to improve the performance and the drivability, and Robert's finished the day very happy with things."Kubica carried out all of Renault's dry weather running at Jerez, as the team changed its schedule once it saw the forecast and moved Russian newcomer Vitaly Petrov from Thursday to Friday.The team felt that with Thursday likely to be the best day weather-wise, it made sense to get as much feedback as possible from the more experienced Kubica.