Sunday: The Caterham team leaves Singapore disappointed
The Caterham F1 team lost big this weekend due to several race circumstances. Heikki Kovalainen finished 15th and Vitaly Petrov 19th, but the real blow is that they were overtaken by Marussia, who at the same time snatched the 10th place in the constructors' championship.
Heikki Kovalainen – 15th:
For me, it was a good race until the safety car periods. We decided to stay on track, but when we were restarted for the second time, I probably stayed out too long, and the tires started to fall apart. I had to pit again, and I didn’t have enough time to catch up, so my race was over – if it weren’t for the safety car, I’m convinced we could have finished higher. We must keep pushing to find more performance in the car. We need to study what went wrong this weekend, and I’m sure the team will analyze everything and see where changes might be needed, but we won’t stop fighting.
Vitaly Petrov – 19th:
« I had a fantastic start, passed at least two or three cars but then saw a car making an aggressive move on the left and had to swerve to avoid it. I was very close to Massa and already in the braking zone, so I couldn’t avoid the contact and my front wing was damaged, forcing me to pit. From there, it was the end of my race and probably Felipe’s as well, and I apologized to him. It’s a shame to see both our races end so early, especially because our car seemed good all weekend.
The safety car could have allowed me to climb up, but we had a problem with the left front wheel nut and we will have to study what happened. I think we also need to look at how we use the tires because we could have gotten more out of them, but we’re lucky to bounce back at Suzuka and I’m confident we will.
