Robert Kubica has admitted that he did not expect to make such a strong start to the Formula One season.
Renault driver expected to score fewer points
Robert Kubica has admitted that he did not expect to make such a strong start to the Formula One season.
The Renault driver is currently lying sixth in the championship standings, level on points with Lewis Hamilton and above both Mercedes cars.
Two podiums have highlighted his terrific early-season form, with the Pole grabbing third behind the dominant Red Bulls last time out in Monaco
Kubica says that he did think he would be so close to the front-runners when the car was being developed in winter and pre-season.
"We had some idea during the winter what the car was capable of," he said.
"We understood its strengths and we worked on maximising them, but I'm still a bit surprised to have scored so many points which shows what a good job we are doing as a team.
Opportunities
"We have taken the opportunities that have come our way, especially in unusual races like Australia or the wet qualifying session in Malaysia.
"We've also taken our opportunities when the car has been strong, as we did in Monaco.
"So I think we can be very pleased with what we have achieved and proud of all the hard work at the factory to bring new parts for the car every weekend.
"But we know there is still a long way to go this season, and we need to continue pushing hard and improving the car."
The 25-year-old is eyeing another good performance at the next race in Turkey but warned that a repeat of Monaco will be hard to achieve.
Kubica added: "Monaco was our strongest performance so far this season, but it's important the result doesn't make us over-optimistic because it will be difficult to repeat that pace this weekend.
"However, I still think we can be competitive in Turkey because the circuit characteristics are similar to Barcelona where we had good performance from the car.
"I'm also hoping the new updates we have for this race will help us close the gap and qualify a little bit higher up than we did in Barcelona."
