Summary: McLaren expected much better

From the qualifications, the Belgian Grand Prix was shaping up to be difficult for the McLaren Mercedes team, which had shone during the last two events.

If Heikki Kovalainen managed to climb back up the rankings successfully, the same cannot be said for Hamilton, whose race ended at the second corner in the first lap. This is the first retirement of the season for the reigning world champion.

For his part, Kovalainen used a clever one-stop strategy and finished his race in 6th position after starting from 15th on the grid. A great performance on a circuit not particularly suited to the MP4/24, which always lacks downforce.

Heikki Kovalainen – 6th:

«A good race for me. Even if our pace here wasn’t as good as in the previous two races, our strategy worked perfectly and I was able to overtake many drivers who pitted before me. Sixth place today is the result of a solid and reliable car, a good strategy, a fantastic engine, and a first-class KERS, each of which helped me gain 9 places from my grid position today.»

Monza will be another story and it’s a very low-downforce circuit, and we are traditionally good in this case. Finally, I am happy for Kimi: he had a great race and I knew he would be a difficult driver to beat here.

Lewis Hamilton – retirement:

« Sometimes, when things go wrong, they go wrong, and it was just a day like those. I got off to a bad start, my anti-stall slowed me down; I tried to come back but got sandwiched at the first corner and lost part of my front wing. When Romain Grosjean spun Jenson at turn 5, everyone tried to avoid them, so I slowed down to try to avoid damage and got hit by one of the drivers behind me, who was also trying to avoid the crash. A disappointing day, but we will come back and try to win this race next year. »

Martin Whitmarsh – Director:

Heikki drove very well from the 15th place on the grid to the 6th position at the finish, optimizing a one-stop strategy and managing his tires wisely all afternoon. Lewis was hit by another car at La Source, then pushed into the wall at Les Combes by another driver. But that’s racing.

Congratulations to Kimi Räikkönen and Ferrari for their first victory of the season, and also to Giancarlo Fisichella and Force India for their sensational second place, it’s a refreshing result that is good for F1 because it shows that the smaller teams can compete with the bigger ones from time to time.

Regarding our team, we were hoping to leave Spa with more than three points but this is the reality; although our car has improved recently, it is not yet as fast as the best ones. But we will analyze this, we will work on it, and we hope to do better at Monza in two weeks.