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

The Brazilian secured his, and the team's, first podium finish of the campaign behind Lewis Hamilton after the Safety Car period at Hockenheim played right into his hands after the Enstone-based squad elected to run th✨e 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 ꦅwas deployed during the weekend's 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 too♍k the lead and althougꦬh he lost out to Hamilton, was still able to bring home a solid second place finish ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

However, despite climbing up to eleventh in the driv𒆙ers' standings - just a point outside the top ten - Piquet said he was keeping his feet very much on the g✃round.

"I don't think it's going to change much," he told ITV-F1. "Obviously it's alw𒀰ays 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 here𒉰 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 would 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, w🦄ith his main focus being on improving his qualifying performance; hisꦗ achilles heel during the season to date.

"We're geꦛtting there slowly, slowly, having some diffic🥃ulties sometimes: qualifying, with the tyres, I'm not getting used to them very easily," he said. "I think it's part of learning.

"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 ꩵneed to improve a lot. I certainly need to improve, the car still needs to improve, the team is doing a great job."