Heikki Kovalainen Laments Missed Opportunities At Spa

Heikki Kovalainen has expressed dissatisfaction to how his Belgian Grand Prix panned out, after the Finnish driver ended the race a lowly 17th after many mistakes during the 44-lap race. At one point, Kovalainen was running as high as 10th, but several spins and a miscommunication within the pits led to a disastrous afternoon for the Caterham driver.

At the start, Heikki Kovalainen was able to avoid the huge multi-car incident, and found himself 10th once the safety car was deployed. However, once the race restarted Heikki Kovalainen was mobbed of his competitive position by the faster opposition. During the Finn’s first scheduled pit stop, his was released into the oncoming path of one of the HRTs, making light contact in the pits. Coupled with several spins out on track, Heikki Kovalainen’s dismal race saw him finish in 17th position, three positions behind team-mate Vitaly Petrov.

“I had a really good start, avoided all the debris from the start-line crash and was up to tenth when the safety car came out.” Explained Heikki Kovalainen, “There were a couple of quicker cars behind me who got past when the safety car went back in and then I made a small mistake at the last chicane which put me back a couple of places but I made them up quickly and was into a good rhythm just behind Vitaly [Petrov]. At my first stop we had a problem with the release from the box and unfortunately I clipped the HRT as I was heading out, bringing me back in for a new front wing. It’s not been a good weekend but we’ll regroup and come back fighting in Italy at the next race.”

Heikki Kovalainen will be looking to redeem himself at next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix around the historic Monza circuit, as the Finn aims for a better race weekend. Caterham have still yet to score their first World Championship points, and it is undeniable that the Leafield-based outfit have progressed greatly throughout this highly entertaining 2012 season.

Picture Copyright © Caterham F1 Team

Kovalainen Amazed With The Heavy Rain Throughout Practice

Heikki Kovalainen has expressed mild surprise at the heavy rain which plagued proceedings earlier today, as the Formula 1 drivers returned to the track after the lengthy summer recess. The rain fell relentlessly throughout the majority of the day, becoming increasingly heavy throughout the second practice session in the afternoon.

With the weather forecast to improve for the remainder of the weekend, many drivers saw no sense in taking to the track in increasingly treacherous conditions. This therefore saw many teams run a limited amount of laps throughout the day, particularly during the second practice session where only 18 of the 24 drivers were officially classified, and French rookie Charles Pic amazingly topped the timing sheets.

“It’s obviously good to be back to racing but a shame it had to start with weather like this.” Explained Heikki Kovalainen, who only completed 11 laps all day. “Spa’s notorious for its weather but I can’t remember seeing it rain this hard for a long time so after today there’s really not a lot to say after most of Friday was washed out. It looks like tomorrow should be dry so I think we’ll be able to get more laps done in FP3 but with the weather in Spa you can never tell.”

Due to the lack of running during the two Friday practice sessions, the third practice session tomorrow morning will most certainly be a frenetic one hour of track action, as the drivers make up for the loss of running thanks to the inclement weather conditions earlier today. However, Spa-Francorchamps has become exceedingly notorious due to it’s ever-changing weather system, and although the forecast is for a dry remainder of the weekend, the rain is never too far away when Formula 1 visits the legendary Belgian circuit.

Picture Copyright © Caterham F1 Team

Heikki Kovalainen: “That Was Pretty Much The Perfect Lap”

Caterham’s Heikki Kovalainen has described his qualifying lap as ‘pretty much the perfect lap’, even though the Finn failed to progress through to Q2. After the only dry session of the qualifying hour, Kovalainen ended Q1 in 19th position only +1.927 seconds off the fastest time set by Kimi Raikkonen prior to the rain arriving.

Since Caterham introduced new upgrades to their car at the British Grand Prix, the team have been striving to unlock the potential of the CT01. Although other members of the team are not necessarily satisfied with how qualifying turned out, Kovalainen is safe in the knowledge that he squeezed every ounce of pace out of his car. Kovalainen’s team-mate Vitaly Petrov qualified one place behind the Finn, however Petrov was just under a second off Kovalainen’s pace.

“For where we are right now that was pretty much the perfect lap.” Enthused Heikki Kovalainen. “I didn’t make any mistakes, nailed every apex and had a clean lap, so I’m pleased with what I got out of the car today. Closing the gap to the cars ahead is obviously our target and I think we are still finding out how to unlock the real potential of the upgrade package we first ran in Silverstone.”

Caterham have yet to score their first World Championship points in Formula 1, after making their debut back in 2010 when they were known as Lotus. They have undeniably shined the most out of the three ‘new’ teams on the grid, and it’s without a doubt only a matter of time before Caterham finally score those first elusive points in Formula 1.

Picture Copyright © Caterham F1 Team