Daniel Ricciardo was left frustrated after Friday running after a seat issue in second practice caused a delayed start to his afternoon session.
The home favourite finished a lowly 17th in FP1 before improving massively in the second practice session to eighth place.
Ricciardo was realistic in his assessment preseason about Renault's slim chances of scoring a race win but did admit that he was disappointed to not have learned more on the first day back after winter testing.
"To be honest it was a bit more of a difficult day, and then we got the one lap in with the soft tyre at the end of FP2 which put us in a more competitive place," he said.
"The long run wasn’t that good, either. We were a bit up and down. There’s still a lot to learn with the car and still some ways to set it up and a few little tricks here and there.
"Nico obviously has a bit more knowledge with that, so [I'm] just trying to understand a bit of that direction, and for now I’ll probably learn a few things from him and maybe as time goes on he’ll learn some things from me."
The Australian pinpointed a seat issue as the cause of the delay to his running.
"We were a bit delayed getting out for both runs - just a few little things with the belts," he explained to media after practice.
"It was actually strange, because they were really loose. Then they made a small adjustment and they couldn't even tighten them. It is like the adjustments were out. We will figure that out.