French GP Benetton Friady notes

Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport continued to use its existing engine during the opening day of the French GP. The team will introduce its latest-evolution V10 tomorrow.

Giancarlo Fisichella

"I have not had a fantastic day, really. On the positive side we did some work with the tyres and made some improvements. But at the end of the session, when I was running on used rubber, the car felt totally different and began to oversteer quite a lot. We need to find a better set-up for tomorrow ^Ì but I am looking forward to using the uprated engine for the first time."

Jenson Button

"We had a bit of understeer at the start of the day but we managed to dial that out and the car was well balanced in race trim by the end. There is still stuff to work on, obviously, but for the first time this season I have managed to find a good base set-up on a Friday. We need just to fine-tune the chassis a little rather than making any big changes. The other piece of good news is that we'll be running our new engine evolution for the first time tomorrow ^Ì and I think the combination of these two factors should help me take a step forward in qualifying."

Pat Symonds, Director of Engineering

"Today we were running with our old-spec engine and without our latest aerodynamic parts, because we were concentrating on finding a basic set-up for the cars. We feel that we have found a good tyre for the weekend, although we have a little way to go to balance our chassis.

"Both drivers felt the car was quite nervous in the high-speed corners and that we needed to improve our exit speed in slow-speed corners. Other than that, however, it has been a straightforward, productive day's work."

-Benetton