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Kovalainen: We Did the Maximum

Q: That race seemed a little tougher than usual for you

Heikki Kovalainen: Yeah - it was the maximum I could do to be honest, and I couldn't have done any more - I was as on the limit as I could be without being all over the place and losing places. I really tried to push Nico [Rosberg] and follow him, but he just pulled away, so we were not quick enough today.

Q: It's a shame really - you were definitely quick, especially looking at the gap back to Premat who you were pulling away from, but you just didn't seem to be able to do anything about Nico today.

Kovalainen: Yeah, it wasn't enough today. I gave it everything as hard as I could, but it wasn't enough - they were quite quick and clearly they've found something, so I did all I could do to take eight points! We have to work harder to get a good result tomorrow, and then move on to the next race.

Q: Is it something that's going to worry you at this stage?

Kovalainen: Well they've been quicker now for the last couple of weeks you know, and they've clearly found something, but I wouldn't really say it's a worry yet - we still have a good gap on them. I mean they're not far ahead, but I think they are a little bit ahead on terms of pace, and it really pushes me to the limit.

But it's okay - it's never going to be easy, and I'm sure that we can improve, so maybe on another weekend we will have the pace and they won't. It seems to be a little up and down - we're sometimes quick and sometimes not so quick - they've been quick for the last couple of weeks but we'll see. It's just something we need to keep an eye on and improve as well so we can stay ahead.

Q: Yeah, because today Nico just seemed to control the pace whenever he wanted.

Kovalainen: Yeah - he pulled away initially and then after the pitstops it was quite close, and then he pulled away again a little bit and I was quite on the edge and could not have gone quicker really, without making mistakes. So I think it was well under control for him and at the end there was a bit of traffic and I caught him up a bit, but there was nothing more I could do.

Q: When you came in for your stops he was 3.8 seconds ahead of you and you left right on his tail - do you think there was any other strategy that could have got you out ahead?

Kovalainen: I doubt it - if I had stopped a lap earlier I obviously would have had fresh tyres to push a little bit up, but they clearly had more pace and after the pitstop he was able to push right away, so it probably wouldn't have worked any better to be honest, and without them actually screwing up the pitstop I don't think we were going to win today.

Q: So what are you hoping for tomorrow?

Kovalainen: I think we should be a bit quicker than the cars ahead of us, so we're going to push hard and try hard - the first lap is going to be important, and then we'll see towards the end of the race - when the tyres start to wear down people start to struggle, and you never know if we can maybe get a couple more points.

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