Nelson Piquet Jr has admitted🐻 that his stunning second place finish in the German Grand Prix🍌 at Hockenheim won't automatically lead to an upturn in his fortunes for the remainder of the Formula 1 season.

The B💮razilian secured his, and the team's, first podium finish of the campaign behind ꦚLewis Hamilton after the Safety Car period at Hockenheim played right into his hands after the Enstone-based squad elected to run the rookie on a one-stop strategy in the race.

Piquet, who hadn't even finished in the top ten before finishing seventh in the French GP last month and was facing increasing pressure to retain💙 his seat, suddenly found himself in amongst the leaders when the Safety Car was deployed during the weekend'sꦺ race as he lay third behind Lewis Hamilton and Nick Heidfeld - with both drivers ahead needing to stop again.

When those stops were made, Piquet duly took the lead and although he los⭕t out to Hamilton, was still able to bring home a soli🍌d second place finish ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

However, despite climbing up to eleventh in the drivers' standings - just a point outside the top ten - Piquꦰet said he was keeping his feet very muchཧ on the ground.

"I don't think it's going to change much," he told ITV-F1. "Obviously it's always good to get a result like this✃. I don't think that if you had the normal finish of a race I probably wouldn't arrive here starting from 17th. It was a bit lucky. It's still difficult for me.

"I'm not saying that in Hungary, the next race, you should 🦩expect me on the podium. I don't think it wo🦂uld be like that. Obviously we're going to be fighting for it, but for me it's a bit tough."

The first-year driver added that he still has 🧔a lot to learn to become a regular points scorer, with his main focus being on improving his qualifying performance; his achilles heel during the season to date.

"We're getting there slowly, slowly, having some difficulties sometimes: qualifying, with the tyres, I'm not getting used to them very easily," he✤ said. "I think it's part of lear🉐ning.

"I think getting a podium is great - it helps the confidence, and it's good for the team, to push them up a bit - but we still need to imp🍷rove a lot. I certainly need to improve, the car still needs to improve, the team is doing a great job."