Heikki Kovalainen will race alongside Giancarlo Fisichella at the Renault team next season, the French squad confirmed on Wednesday.

The confirmation puts an end to speculation over the second Renault seat following the exit of world champion Fernando Alonso to the McLaren team at the end of the year.

"I am thrilled to get the opportunity to race with a world champion team like Renault," said Kovalainen. "I have been a member of the Renault Driver Development programme since 2002, when I had the distant ambition of one day becoming an F1 driver.

"It is a fantastic feeling to have finally achieved that. My two seasons testing for the team, as well as my time in GP2, have allowed me to build my technical knowledge and to understand what it takes to win in Formula One. I have also had the opportunity to show the team what I can do, and it is a great motivation to know that they believe in me.

"It will be a fantastic feeling to line up on the grid in Melbourne, but that is still a long way off. At the moment, I am totally focused on helping Renault win the 2006 championship."

The 25-year-old Finn, last year's runner-up in the GP2 championship, was Renault's test driver in 2006, covering over 28,000kms.

"Everybody at Renault is very optimistic about our driver line-up for 2007 and beyond," said Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, who also announced he will be staying with the team at least until 2008.