What goes around: Interview with Heikki Kovalainen

It took him 11 races, but in Hungary Heikki Kovalainen finally did what we all knew he was capable of and won a Grand Prix for McLaren.

Of course he was helped by some misfortune for those ahead, but you have to be in the right place to take advantage of such problems. And Heikki himself has known a few disappointments this year. Two qualifying penalties, that huge Barcelona crash caused by a wheel failure, electronic problems on the grid at Monaco that put him in the pit lane for the start - they all took away opportunities if not to win, then certainly to give him a far more respectable points total than the one he has now.

Most frustrating of all was Turkey, when a first corner touch from Kimi Raikkonen gave him a puncture and dropped him to the back. After that race, Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh made it clear that had the race unfolded as planned, Heikki could have won.

"It was of course a long wait," Kovalainen smiled after the race. "It could have happened earlier this year, I think we've been in a position a few times to do it, but always something happened, and I've not been able to do it. To do it today, with a little bit of luck on my side, it doesn't feel any worse. There are no style points in F1, it's still a good result."

After qualifying, everything looked pretty good for McLaren, as the team secured their first front row of the season. However, Kovalainen knew that from the dirty side of the track, he was going to have a tough time keeping Massa back. But no one, apart from perhaps Felipe himself, anticipated that the Ferrari would jump both McLarens.

Even more surprising, perhaps, was the way Massa edged clear of Lewis Hamilton and stayed there.

Heikki Kovalainen loses ground to Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton in the early laps © LAT

However, Heikki says he feared the Ferraris would be fast in race trim.

"It's no surprise, we never underestimate them. We knew that Kimi made a little mistake in qualifying and it could have been a different story. Felipe looked strong all weekend, so we knew they were going to be there. In these kind of hot conditions, they've been strong previously this year so we always thought it was going to be a tough race."

Through that first stint, Kovalainen gradually fell back. When Massa pitted on lap 18, he was around 10s behind the Ferrari, and 7s shy of Hamilton. He stopped two laps after his teammate, and once again his qualifying effort - he was just 0.241s behind Hamilton - looked more than respectable on fuel corrected times.

Through the second stint he continued to fall away from the guys in front, at approximately the same rate as before. Nevertheless, he was not unhappy.

"It was a tough race, all race. For the first couple of stints I was losing a little bit to Lewis and Felipe all the time. But even then I felt it was going reasonably well, apart from a few laps when there was some traffic and I lost a little bit of time. Apart from that, it was alright."

When Hamilton had his tyre problem on lap 41, Kovalainen suddenly found himself in second. Now he knew he was carrying McLaren's hopes, there was a subtle change in emphasis as Massa became his sole target. Towards the end of that stint he began to peg the gap to Massa at around 23s.

Obviously, Massa knew that Hamilton was out, and initially that took the pressure off, but Kovalainen also stepped up. Running four laps longer to his second stop, he trimmed the gap to 17s. He now had 21 laps to run on the super soft tyre. Not for the first time this year, McLaren found that, on a rubbered-in track, the option provided a useful gain for the last part of a race. Gradually, the margin to Massa began to shrink. Felipe was also being given instructions by engineer Rob Smedley, and was taking just enough out of the car to stay ahead.

From 17s on lap 49 it came down to 14s by lap 55, and then 10s on lap 59s, with 10 to go. Now things were getting interesting. Over the next few laps the gap went 9.8s, 9.6s, 9.6s, 7.9s, 7.5s, 7.2s, 6.7s. Then as he came up to complete lap 67, Massa's engine failed. Crossing the line that lap, pretty much at the instant the engine let go, he was 5.8s clear.

It was hard not to feel sorry for the Brazilian, especially since he'd done such a great job and he could have let the gap drop to 1s over those last three laps and still won comfortably.

But keeping your engine in one piece is an absolutely fundamental part of motor racing, as is maintaining pressure on someone in order to force them to push harder than they would like.

Felipe Massa retires with engine problems © XPB

We'll probably never know whether the Ferrari V8 would have lasted those extra three laps had Massa been able to back off to a much greater degree, but the need to counter Kovalainen's charge certainly couldn't have helped. And he would have had to go even quicker for the last 29 laps if Hamilton had still been in the frame.

"On the last stint it felt particularly good on the soft tyres," said Heikki. "I was able to increase the pace and try to put pressure Felipe. I was hoping that something would happen and I tried to put pressure on him try to push him. Maybe he needed to go more aggressive on his engine settings or whatever. I caught him quite well, and then to see him pull up of course was a surprise.

"After that I had no need to push any more and just backed off a bit to make sure we'd bring the car home without any incident.

"I saw it straight away, but it was obviously a little bit difficult to believe. I had just lapped the Toro Rosso car, I thought maybe it could be another Toro Rosso, so I had to look which one it is, then I saw the yellow crash helmet and thought this is pretty good for us!"

His fellow countryman may be called the Ice Man, but equally Kovalainen is not the sort of guy to get overexcited at the wrong moment.

"The most important thing is to keep concentration and not to make any mistakes. I backed off a little bit with my engine, just no need to rush any more, and bring it home. I've sometimes thought about the moment when I would be leading in the last few laps and just to chill out, and perhaps I chilled out a little bit more. It's a very positive feeling, and to bring it home feels great."

He had plenty of time to think about his own missed opportunities.

"I'm a little bit sorry for Felipe, I know how he feels, and also for Lewis because he also had a great race today. He was a little bit faster in the first two stints compared to myself, but I've been in this position many times where I feel that we are there, and it had all gone wrong. Quite a few times this year, like in Monaco, where I couldn't even start the race where I was on the grid.

"These things are just part of motor racing, I don't believe it's just the luck. In the long run it happens to everybody. It's just a shame it happened to me this year, four or five times in a row almost, and there was a period where I only scored one point in four races or something. That's just the way it goes sometimes, you need to keep focused. It's 10 points for me today, but if you look at the long run, everybody has these ups and downs."

Kovalainen is nothing if not a realist, and he knows how tough the fight will be in the coming months.

Heikki Kovalainen © LAT

"We never underestimate anyone, that's the bottom line. We're just trying to maximise our own performance every time. It just shows that it's going to be close until the end of the season. We have to keep pushing our development, I think we've found a good direction now with the car. There are new parts coming all the time, and I'm confident that we'll be able to join the fight. It will be close all the time.

"Today the race pace felt better than in the last few rounds and that gives a good confidence for the rest of the season."

Then, of course, there's the man himself. It's a useful old cliche that after the first win things became easier - not that Jean Alesi would agree - but his Hungarian success can only serve to make Kovalainen stronger.

There's no escaping the fact that aside from the bad luck he's endured, there have been races where he simply couldn't find the pace to match Hamilton, perhaps because Lewis's driving style allowed him to find more grip from the package.

McLaren might not have made an issue of his struggles in Canada and Germany (and in the rain at Silverstone), and confirming that he will continue in 2009 underlined their faith in him. But deep down, even the supremely confident Kovalainen would probably admit the boost only a win can give was timely.

"I'm sure it gives a little bit, but I've never taken any stress about it and the team has never put any stress on me about anything. They know the potential is there and, like I said, we've been in a good position a few times after qualifying but haven't been able to nail it on Sunday. We just haven't lost the concentration, we've just kept focus and tried to work logically to understand what's going on, and we're trying to improve it. I think we're heading in the right direction."

It's exactly 15 years since Damon Hill scored his maiden F1 win in Hungary, and five since Fernando Alonso did the same. For both men, the floodgates opened, and the same may happen for Kovalainen.