Raikkonen's McLaren is comfortably faster than Alonso's Renault

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen won in Turkey to close the gap to Renault's series leader Fernando Alonso to 24 points.

Symonds said: "We are not sure why but our absolute speed was not too good.

"We had a good balance on the cars and no specific problems but there was a 0.8secs gap to (McLaren's Juan Pablo) Montoya on similar fuel loads."

Symonds said Renault had developments in the pipe line that would help them in the final three races - after the forthcoming Italian and Belgian Grands Prix.

"Looking in order, Monza (in Italy) is a one-off race and Spa (in Belgium) the type of circuit where McLaren are likely to be quicker than us," Symonds said.

The best form of defence is attack Pat Symonds Renault engineering director

"But we have a big aerodynamic update in Brazil, and engine development is ongoing: every fresh engine contains extra performance developments."

And he said he was encouraged by Alonso's ability to pressure Montoya into an error on the penultimate lap in Turkey.

Montoya had been cruising to second place and McLaren's first one-two of the season until he was knocked off the track by backmarker Tiago Monteiro of Jordan while lapping him.

Montoya rejoined the track with a damaged car and Alonso on his tail and ran wide, allowing the Spaniard into second place - ensuring Raikkonen cut his lead by only two points rather than four.

"It demonstrates that the best form of defence is attack. That was the lesson we took from Hungary (where Renault failed to score any points) - it showed us we needed to be adaptable, and to try and take the fight to McLaren.

"This weekend, we did that and it worked: Montoya was under pressure from Fernando two laps from the end, and he made a mistake. We got the best possible result from the weekend � and that was very satisfying."