Planet-F1

Heikki: Happy with third after 'rallycross'

Saturday 19th July 2008

Heikki Kovalainen admits he was a bit lucky to qualify third for Sunday's German GP after a momentary off during his final flying lap.

During the final qualifying segment Kovalainen was lucky to keep his car pointing forwards when he ran wide at the exit of the final corner.

This cost the Finn vital tenths from which he was unable to come back, leaving him third on the grid for Sunday's race at Hockenheim.

Kovalainen, though, is anything but disappointed with his starting position.

"First of all, it's been a good day for the team," the McLaren driver said.

"I think our car has been performing really, really well, the last four or five weeks. I think we've made some significant steps forward and we're going to carry on like this.

"For myself in qualifying, the car felt the best it has felt all week so far, and going into Q3, I was very confident and felt I could challenge for pole position.

"But on my first lap in Q3 at Turn 12, I just lost the rear end and went wide.

"I don't know what happened there, but I think I just tried to go too deep into the corner.

"And I think I damaged a part of the bottom of the car but I was didn't feel any of the damage.

"On my second run, there was a little bit of 'rallycross' also on the exit of the last turn so I very happy with third place if you take into account of all of the moments today."