Jarno Trulli's lap of Magny-Cours.

Jarno Trulli spearheads the Renault assault at Magny-Cours, with the French team hoping it can crown its return to 'home' soil with a points finish if not a podium position.

The Italian is well versed in the complexities of what many decry as a bland modern circuit, both from race experience and his brief spell with the Prost squad, and is confident that he can exploit the layout on the biggest weekend of the season for his team.

"At the start of the lap, I enter a very fast left-hand corner and I'll be changing into top gear, taking it at 280kph. It is quite easy flat, but I need to position the car well on exit as it leads into the important right-hander at turn two.

"I will be approaching this corner at just under 290kph and, due to the camber, I almost take two apexes through it, hitting the first one at around 200kph and then dropping down to around 175kph for the second, while holding fourth gear throughout.

"It's a difficult corner, as the car will always tend to understeer here due to the high loading on the left hand tyre. My aim will be minimise understeer to get good speed on the main straight that follows.

"At the end of this straight, I will be doing around 300kph in top gear before braking very hard, typically at 4g, and then dropping down to first gear and 60kph for the hairpin.

"Exiting the corner is difficult and, often during the race, the entry to the corner is offline if you have to defend your position. However, on exiting it, I will get up to around 280 kph in top gear just getting into sixth gear before entering the first of the fast chicanes.

"This is a right-left chicane, with the first part taken at 215kph in fourth gear and the second part being almost, but not quite, flat, with just a small lift as I apex around 230kph before reaching the next left-hand hairpin.

"I should get to 260kph in fifth gear before dropping to second at around 88kph, which makes this a slightly quicker hairpin than the first one. The exit from this corner is similar to exit from the first hairpin, in that I will reach 285kph in top gear before entering the second of the very fast chicanes.

"This is again a right-left chicane and it differs from the first one in that the first part of the chicane is quicker than the second part. Like the first chicane, it is also taken in fourth gear, but my apexes will be at 220kph and 210kph. In addition, there is a bit of a dip in the track here which adds extra load to the car.

"On exiting the chicane, I will hold fourth gear to around 230kph before dropping down to second gear and around 95kph for another long right hand corner.

"As I head back towards the pit area, I should just get into fifth gear at 260kph before entering the final chicane, which is much slower than the previous two and is taken in second gear at between 120kph and 130kph.

"On exit, I won't get to full throttle before having to brake again for the final very tight corner, which I will take at 70kph in first gear. The start/finish line is very close to the exit corner so, for a good qualifying lap, I need to pay particular attention to this exit as I cross the finish line at 140kph in second gear."