By GMM

Arguably the most relieved man in the Magny-Cours paddock last Sunday afternoon was Renault race driver Nelson Piquet.

Before the French grand prix, media reports suggested that the Brazilian rookie's seat at the Enstone team was in doubt, following a dreadful start to his F1 career.

But Piquet, 22, had a better weekend all round in the French countryside, at a circuit he knew much better than most of the circuits that preceded Magny-Cours on the calendar this year.

"These points take a lot of pressure away," he is quoted as saying by the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport.

"From now on things will go even better -- I didn't want to take any risks in Magny-Cours, because I absolutely had to finish the race," he said.

The next race takes place at Silverstone -- one of Piquet's favourite circuits.

"There, he could trouble even Alonso," the team's engineering veteran Pat Symonds predicts.

"What this result will give him is confidence. Perhaps what we will see now is the same as what we saw with Kovalainen last year," he added.