Kovalainen: As Good As it Gets

Heikki Kovalainen: "Yeah, the car was okay today, but I didn't have much grip on the wets - I'm not sure why. The start was okay but then I was struggling big time, and I made a couple of mistakes. But we thought about the strategy because obviously sometime the track was going to dry out, and then I had a good call from the team to come in, and that obviously won the race for us."

Q: It was a good call - a couple of guys came in one lap earlier, but I think you came in on exactly the right lap.

Kovalainen: "Yeah, and then I just had to push to make the most of it while everyone else was out on wet tyres, and it worked out nicely. For me, I got out with a good clear track, but there was just a little bit of confusion - I didn't know that I was racing the two BCN cars, who were obviously still on wets, and I was waiting for the blue flags to come out, and I was thinking 'where are the flags?'

"But I managed to get past them pretty easily, and my team told me after the race that I was racing with them! But obviously I just drove around them, because I had so much more grip than them, so it was not so difficult. But that was pretty funny!"

Q: How was the handling of the car?

Kovalainen: "It was set a bit towards the rain, so I didn't have quite the balance today, but I think for these conditions it was fine, because the line was quite fine and we needed a bit of extra downforce to have more confidence in the car, rather than being on a knife edge. It was okay - I think it was as good as it gets for that."

Q: It certainly looked easy from outside of the car.

Kovalainen: "Yeah, it wasn't a problem - I saw that Carroll was three or four seconds behind, and then I started pulling away, but I wasn't sure how many laps there were to go so I just pushed. I was also going for the fastest lap, obviously, but I just missed it on the last lap. I wasn't pushing massively - I didn't want to make a mistake - but it's a shame it didn't come off."

Q: But I'm sure that getting the win makes up for that, and for yesterday.

Kovalainen: "Exactly. It's nice to get a win - we had a difficult day on Friday and were off the pace and I made a few mistakes, so it looks worse, and then yesterday we had a good balance in the car but then the engine problems came. But the guys worked it out - well, really they just replaced everything to make sure that it doesn't misfire anymore - and to come away with the win is very, very good."

Q: And bringing back the biggest trophy lifts the atmosphere in the team as well.

Kovalainen: "For sure - it shows that we are still capable of winning races. Hockenheim was difficult for us, and in Hungary our starts weren't great, because otherwise we would have won there as well, but we're still there and I think that, with a bit of work, we'll be fine."

Q: With the momentum changing lately in the Championship it's also good for you, because it will give you a bit of a push in that as well.

Kovalainen: "Exactly, yeah, and we can pull out these results in the future as well - it's not a problem."