'Quick Nick' due for a change of French fortunes.

Nick Heidfeld insists he is fully fit once more following the back pain that forced him to curtail his testing at Silverstone last week, and is bidding to improve on his best Formula 1 result at Magny-Cours - a circuit that looked kindly on him throughout the junior formulae.

The German has enjoyed a strong start to the 2007 campaign, with a second place and three fourths that have left him lying in fifth position in the drivers' world championship standings, just six points adrift of Ferrari ace and former team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. Though he failed to finish at Indianapolis last time out, he is optimistic of getting back on-track again in France.

"[The back pain] is gone now," Heidfeld confirmed. "I felt that the circuit (Silverstone) was quite bumpy and I think some other drivers actually had back problems as well. I just played it safe because I knew that in two weeks' time we would have a race and now it's all fine again.

"At the test we tried some new things to rectify the problems I had at Indy. It all worked ok, and actually the parts that failed had been on for a very long time before. Sometimes you can do so much testing and you still don't know if something will fail, but we tried to change it and I'm quite sure it's going to be OK now."

Despite Heidfeld's best finish at Magny-Cours being sixth place back in 2001, he is adamant his luck is set to change this year, especially given BMW's seemingly established role as best-of-the-rest behind McLaren and Ferrari.

"It's not a good record is it?" the 30-year-old acknowledged. "I like the circuit though. People say it's not the most interesting one to visit because it's in the middle of nowhere but for me, as a driver, it's good fun. The second corner is very nice - the long right hander - and I especially enjoy the two quick chicanes which are probably outstanding in Formula One.

"I've been going well here in Formula 3 and Formula 3000. It's a long time ago but I've won here and I will try to do the same in F1 over the next couple of years."