Heikki keen to make it up to mum

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN

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Friday 9th May 2008

Heikki Kovalainen is determined to give his mum a Mother's Day to remember after sending her "a bit crazy" 11 days ago.

Sisko Kovalainen freaked after witnessing her son's 150mph smash in the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.

Fortunately for Heikki his mum did not witness the accident live as she was working that day, later seeing replays after learning her boy had sustained nothing more than mild concussion.

But the images were still enough to frighten her, and now McLaren star Heikki is eager to make amends and put a smile on her face on Sunday as the majority of Europe celebrates Mother's Day.

Kovalainen, today cleared to race after passing a FIA medical examination, said: "She was working while I was racing.

"My dad called her and told her I had had an accident and she was like 'okay'.

"But then she got home and actually saw what happened and she went a bit crazy - she's just about recovered now!

"I think I should try to give her a better Mother's Day present rather than a call from hospital to say 'I had a crash'."

Kovalainen still has no recall of his horror shunt sparked by a left-front failure of the wheel rim that led to a deflation of the tyre and the 26-year-old hurtling off track into a tyre barrier.

Like his mum, the Finn has viewed replays, conceding he is "lucky" to have escaped far more serious injury.

"I have seen it, and it is a serious accident from which I managed to walk away," added Kovalainen.

"I think I was a little lucky, but I also must stress that all the safety standards the FIA has been pushing for worked very well.

"The chassis took the impact reasonably well, as did the barriers.

"The FIA medical team and the marshals did a fantastic job to get me out of there quickly, and in a short period of time I have been able to make a recovery without any injuries to my body.

"Safety is something we must still keep working on, but the work paid off that day."

Kovalainen concedes to the accident being the worst of his career, one that resulted in him blacking out on impact.

"I haven't had a black-out before," assessed Kovalainen.

"I've had a couple of serious accidents, but I have never knocked myself out like that and so it has to be the most serious accident so far.

"The first people who arrived at the scene reported me being awake and assisting to get myself out of there, but I don't remember it.

"I also told them I had no injuries, that I was okay, but again I don't remember.

"I guess my brain was confused and I didn't record anything on my hard drive, if you like! It's a bit of a shutdown by the body to protect your brain and your organs.

"I don't have any issues with that, although it would be good if one day the whole image came back into my head.

"I don't think I would have any problem with that, but at the moment all I can talk about is what I saw on the video."

Kovalainen's first recollection is of waking up in the hospital to where he was airlifted after the smash.

"I remember being in intensive care in the hospital with a lot of people around me," recalled Kovalainen.

"I was a bit confused as to what had happened so I asked the team doctor 'what are we doing here?'

"He explained what happened. After that my memory has been normal and I was aware of everything after that.

"That's where I got back on track."

Kovalainen will be back on track for real with today's practice sessions for the 58-lap race.

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