Not how I imagined my first day would be, Renault rookie admits...

Renault suffered a 'disappointing' opening practice at Melbourne ahead of Sunday's curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix, as an early spin from rookie Nelsinho Piquet left the former double constructors' world champions chasing their tail for the remainder of the day.

The young Brazilian - discovering the slippery Albert Park circuit for the first time - ended the morning session down in 18th place and the warmer afternoon one spot lower still, as he languished in an overall 20th position at the close of play. That contrasted with team-mate Fernando Alonso's sixth place in the morning and 13th later on, as the Spaniard wound up ninth-quickest outright - still someway adrift of the Régie's expectations, however, at almost a full two seconds away from the leading pace.

Piquet covered just 35 laps over the course of the day to Alonso's 59, as both drivers focused on set-up work and tyre evaluation. The latter enjoyed a more trouble-free time of it, but a busy track nevertheless prevented him from demonstrating the R28's true potential on new rubber.

"This first day has been very hot and very windy," the double world champion explained afterwards, "but the conditions were the same for everyone. For the first day we worked on the set-up of the car and we made good progress, but we still have to improve the stability under braking and the car's overall balance. We must still find some performance, but I am optimistic for the rest of the weekend."

"That was not how I imagined my first day of work would be," added Piquet, whose best time was ultimately a gaping four seconds shy of the leading runners, "and we would have liked to have made more progress. I made a mistake in the first session which caused some damage to my gearbox and meant the team had to do some work on my car between the two sessions.

"I was able to get my first feelings for the track, though, and I hope to make a bigger contribution tomorrow. I know I have a lot to learn, but I was able to get more comfortable with each lap, and that is what I am going to continue to do throughout the weekend."

The Enstone-based outfit's Executive Director of Engineering Pat Symonds acknowledged the opening day had gone far from according to plan, but he predicted that Renault would shake out right in the midst of the likely tight battle behind Ferrari and McLaren.

"[That was] a difficult start to our season," the 54-year-old reflected. "Nelson spun in the first session and our analysis showed there could be damage to the gearbox, so we had to change that, which resulted in him being out late for the second session. He was really on his back foot from there onwards.

"With Fernando we covered a good number of laps and completed a sensible programme. We made some improvements on the balance, but as always there is more to do. We feel there is a little bit more potential in the car as the two runs on new tyres were spoilt by traffic, but overall it looks like we are in with the big pack.

"If you look at both the sessions it seems that the four favourites that emerged during the winter have confirmed their position today," added Head of Engine Track Operations Denis Chevrier. "From our point-of-view, the day was somewhat disappointing because we designed our programme to give Nelson the most time on-track possible.

"In the end that did not turn out to be the case, which is a shame on a circuit that is difficult to learn and master. We will try to make the most of the last practice session tomorrow to approach the qualifying session in the best shape possible."