Kubica glad Renault took its chance in Oz

Date published : 01 Apr 2010 - 11:49:51

Robert Kubica says it was crucial that Renault took advantage of the crazy race in Melbourne to snatch a second place, as he reckons it will be the squad's only chance of a top result for a little while.A brilliant start from ninth and great Renault pit work got Kubica up to third in Australia - which became second after Sebastian Vettel's retirement - and he was able to successfully defend the place amid huge pressure from Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and the Ferraris at various stages.Kubica admitted that other drivers' disasters and the changing weather meant some might class his Melbourne podium as lucky - but that didn't bother him at all."It's clear that our package is not up there on pace and everybody realised that Australia was our chance for now," he said."If you look at all the cars on pace, we are not there - that is quite clear. "But the points are the same for every race, so whether it was an opportunistic podium or pure pace, it doesn't matter."There's still a long way to go, but I think it was a great achievement."Renault had not been among the absolute front-runners in winter testing, but Kubica reckons February's times were misleading anyway, rather than his squad having made huge progress since then."We have seen cars at the top of the times in testing and thinking they will be fighting for podiums, and they are far behind," said Kubica."We have seen cars who, like we were, were not very quick in testing, but I think the truth is in the middle."He thinks Renault's aim at present should be to fight with Mercedes if possible."We are at the front of the second group, with Williams and Force India," he said."Maybe if Mercedes doesn't get it completely perfect and we get it completely right, we'll be able to fight with them."Kubica hopes that Renault can gain ground on those ahead as the year progresses, but warned that it won't be easy."I'm pretty confident about our programme of development but I cannot have any information about the others," he said."You can develop the car very quickly, but if the others develop in the same way, you will not gain ground to them, and you will not become closer."Our direction is good, but the top teams are not sleeping, and for sure they will be working really hard as well."