Kovalainen hopes win is first of many

The McLaren driver benefited from the problems of teammate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Felipe Massa to become Formula One's 100th winner on Sunday.

Now Kovalainen, mostly overshadowed by Hamilton this year, wants to keep the momentum going.

"It is fantastic. It is a great moment," said the Finn.

"It has been a moment I have been targeting for many years now, since I eyed the possibility to be an F1 driver I wanted to improve my fitness to try and achieve this goal and to achieve this goal is pleasing. Hopefully it is the first of many."

Kovalainen admitted both Hamilton and Massa were quicker than him during the race, but the Finn said he just kept pushing hoping that Massa would have problems.

In the end, the Ferrari driver retired three laps from the end with an apparent engine failure.

"Of course I am very happy," Kovalainen said. "We have been in a position to fight for a victory but always something has gone wrong and hasn't functioned correctly. Today Lewis and Massa were fastest in race. I tried to put pressure on Massa hoping he had would have a mechanical failure and it seemed to work.

"The team went through difficult times but I kept pushing and I am extremely happy to score my first victory."

He added: "I was catching him, quite a big chunk every lap, to put pressure on him. I did everything to put pressure on him and my car felt particularly good during the last stint.

"The first two stints I was cautious, because at some races I had problems with tyre degradation so I knew if I passed that edge I might struggle."

Despite his win, Kovalainen is still sixth in the drivers' standings, 24 points behind Hamilton.