Heikki Kovalainen: Caterham needs dry mileage to exploit latest upgrade

The team ran several new parts at Silverstone, but the lack of running in the dry meant it was unable to get them to work to its maximum.

After rain hit both Friday and Saturday sessions in Germany this weekend as well, Kovalainen reckons there is still more to come from the upgrades.

The Finn qualified in 19th position, nearly a second behind his closest rivals, after what he labelled as a perfect lap.

"For where we are right now that was pretty much the perfect lap," said 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.

"Taking the package as a whole there are a lot of elements we need to get right to really use its potential and I think we still need more dry running to really understand what it will really give us.

"We'll keep working on achieving that and perhaps we'll see more of its value tomorrow as it's due to be sunny, and in Hungary where the hotter conditions will definitely suit us better than the cold, wet weather we've had in Germany and at the last race in Silverstone."

Team-mate Vitaly Petrov qualified right behind, albeit nearly a full second off Kovalainen.