Nelson Piquet Jr has admitted that his stunning second place finish in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim won't automatically lead to an upturn in his fortunes for the remainder of the
Formula 1 season.
The Brazilian secured his, and the team's, first podium finish of the campaign behind
Lewis Hamilton after the Safety Car period at Hockenheim played right into his hands after the Enstone-based squad elected to run the rookie on a one-stop strategy in the race.
Piquet, who hadn't even finished in the top ten before finishing seventh in the French GP last month and was facing increasing pressure to retain his seat, suddenly found himself in amongst the leaders when the Safety Car was deployed during the weekend's race as he lay third behind Lewis Hamilton and
Nick Heidfeld – with both drivers ahead needing to stop again.
When those stops were made, Piquet duly took the lead and although he lost out to Hamilton, was still able to bring home a solid second place finish ahead of
Ferrari's
Felipe Massa.
However, despite climbing up to eleventh in the drivers' standings – just a point outside the top ten – Piquet said he was keeping his feet very much on the ground.
"I don't think it's going to change much," he told
ITV-F1. "Obviously it's always good to get a result like this. I don't think that if you had the normal finish of a race I probably wouldn't arrive here starting from 17th. It was a bit lucky. It's still difficult for me.
"I'm not saying that in Hungary, the next race, you should expect me on the podium. I don't think it would be like that. Obviously we're going to be fighting for it, but for me it's a bit tough."
The first-year driver added that he still has a lot to learn to become a regular points scorer, with his main focus being on improving his qualifying performance; his achilles heel during the season to date.
"We're getting there slowly, slowly, having some difficulties sometimes: qualifying, with the tyres, I'm not getting used to them very easily," he said. "I think it's part of learning.
