Sunday: Petrov thrilled to have fought with Kovalainen at Caterham
Leaving the Italian Grand Prix, Heikki Kovalainen had mixed feelings about his race despite finishing in fourteenth place. Petrov, on the other hand, was enthusiastic after this Grand Prix during which he battled with his teammate until the last lap, the day after his birthday.
Heikki Kovalainen – 14th:
Overall, the race was OK and better than last weekend’s, but for me, it was quite a difficult afternoon, not too bad but rather average. I didn’t really have the performance I had during the longer stints on Friday, and the grip level seemed lower, so I couldn’t really attack, which held me back a bit on each set of tires.
From now on, we have two weeks to review everything we learned in Italy as well as in Spa, and make sure we go to Singapore with a clear idea of where we lost time in Spa and what we can do to continue improving for the rest of the season. Everyone is determined to get back to where we should be, and we’ll see what we’ve learned when we hit the track again in two weeks.
« My car looked fantastic all afternoon, so thanks to the whole team for giving me a car with which I could fight with my teammate until the last lap. The pit stops were good and the mechanics and engineers did a great job keeping me in the battle with Heikki. A few laps from the end, Heikki and I were right behind Fernando [Alonso], but Heikki was close enough to the Ferrari to use his DRS, otherwise maybe I could have passed him. That said, we have undoubtedly made progress since Spa and we can build on that for Singapore and the rest of the season.
It was my birthday yesterday and I had a quiet dinner with a few friends. Now, I can go out and celebrate a bit more, it will be a good way to close the European season: maybe I should have dinner with my friends more often before each race so that I can have such good Sundays for the rest of the year.
