McLaren happy with Kovalainen's second

He qualified alongside Sebastian Vettel on the front row of the grid at Monza, but was unable to challenge the Scuderia Toro Rosso driver at any point during the race and had to settle for second place.

Kovalainen looked disheartened on the podium but Whitmarsh defended the Finn's pace and claimed the team were not unhappy with the result.

"Heikki has no reason to feel disappointed," he said. "The reality is that he didn't put a foot wrong all weekend and he looked blindingly fast in dry, damp, and full-wet conditions. Fuel-corrected he would have been on pole position comfortably.

"He struggled a little with visibility in the early stages of the race and had a few difficulties with his tyres and brake temperatures, but we are not disappointed with his result. I think we recovered very well from Saturday, very consciously played the numbers correctly on Sunday, and secured a sizeable haul of constructors' points.

"Let's not forget that Heikki is fearsomely quick, but is still very much developing his approach. We have a clearly defined programme for him in the weeks and months ahead and feel certain that he will only grow stronger."