Nick Heidfeld says he feels Renault has taken a step forwards since Silverstone and is targeting points despite qualifying outside the top ten for the German Grand Prix.
Heidfeld qualified 16th and Vitaly Petrov 14th at the British Grand Prix two weeks ago, and managed to salvage three points for eighth place during the race. Having been eliminated in Q3 at the Nurburgring Heidfeld was not too downbeat, saying that it was clear to him that progress had been made.
"I was only just over three hundredths of a second off Q3 but margins like that can always be found somewhere," Heidfeld said. "So by no means was this a bad qualifying session for me, although it would have been good to have had a run in Q3 and try to gain a few more places. As for tomorrow, so much depends on the weather; if it's wet it makes it very difficult to know what to expect and we know that as a team, our car is better in dry conditions and on the long runs.
"One thing is clear, and that is that we're on the way back. Silverstone was a tough race for us, but we've certainly made a step forward and we need to have a good race tomorrow to demonstrate that. We're definitely targeting points."
Petrov himself managed to make it in to the final part of qualifying, and said he had achieved his target of starting from the first five rows, but hoped it would be more comfortable in the future.
"It was not an easy day for us as it was very difficult to find the right set-up and also to warm-up the tyres in these cold conditions," Petrov said. "We all worked very hard so it was satisfying to achieve our main target of getting into the top ten, and I think we should be quite happy with our position today. That said, we were still at the limit to get into Q3 so there is more work to do.
"The team did a fantastic job and they gave me a fantastic car. The weather has changed a lot over the last two days so you need to always adapt your driving style, but whether it is wet or dry tomorrow, we are ready for anything."
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