Question: It has been a long road but your first win in Formula One. Describe your feelings as you crossed the line.
Heikki Kovalainen: Yeah, of course I was very happy. Like you mentioned there have been various incidents this year and we have been in the position after Saturday quite a few times to fight for the victory, but always something has gone wrong and it hasn’t functioned perfectly. Today obviously I knew Massa and Lewis were both very fast at the beginning of the race but half way through the race I felt it was starting to work for me a little bit better and then at the end I just tried to put pressure on Massa and hoped something would happen and obviously it looked like he had a mechanical failure, so it all worked fine for me today and I am very, very happy about it. All the hard work that the whole team has put in the last few months, through difficult times, we just kept pushing and it is very respectable and I am very, very glad to score my first victory.
Question: The car looked particularly good in the last stint on the softer tyres. How quick was the car relative to Felipe do you think?
Heikki Kovalainen: It is difficult to say what he was doing. I was catching him quite a big chunk every lap and the target was to try and put pressure on him and take all the power from his engine and everything I could do to put pressure on him. Like you said, my car felt particularly good on the last stint. The first two stints I was a little bit cautious. Earlier this year I have had some troubles with the tyre degradation and I was worried if I crossed that edge again I might start to struggle. I just kept my own pace and then in the last stint it all worked fine for me.
Question: In the last few laps you knew you were leading and the Finnish anthem was played for you this time on the podium.
Heikki Kovalainen: It is fantastic. It is a great moment. Of course it is a moment I have been targeting for many, many years now since I started to get an idea about the possibility of becoming an F1 driver. I started to work hard and improve my fitness. I have spent a lot of time to achieve this goal, so to finally achieve it, is very pleasing. Hopefully this is the first of many. At the moment we just need to keep the concentration, have a little break and try to maximise this break and then go to the next round and try to repeat it.
Question: What were your emotions during the race? They must have been extraordinary.
Heikki Kovalainen: Yeah, but obviously for myself it wasn’t quite like that. I just tried to keep it tidy and not make any mistakes and also the first two stints especially with the hard tyre I just tried to look after those tyres. Earlier this year there were quite a few times when I thought the tyres were dropping off as I was a little bit too hard on them, so I tried not to go too much. I just tried to go with the pace that I felt was available at that moment and just tried to increase it when I could. Then with the soft tyre at the end it felt particularly good and I felt confident to push and the tyre wasn’t dropping off. Then when I tried to put pressure on Felipe I was catching him and in the end it was over.
Question: What about the start?
Heikki Kovalainen: Yeah, I felt that it was a little bit slippery on my side and straight away I saw that Lewis got a little jump on me and was a bit more ahead and then I saw Felipe coming and there was nothing I could do. I just sat back and saw that the guys behind me had also not got such a good start, so I was on my own already after just 200 metres. I was just trying to follow them into the first corner as it was quite possible something was going to happen as they were quite close to each other and they were locking wheels and everything. But they drove fine and after that it was quite a long lonely race for myself. I had a little problem with traffic in the middle of the race. There were quite a few lapped cars and it is very difficult to get close enough here to indicate to them that we are behind and I had a little chat on the radio to get the blue flags out and those guys had to back off from quite a long distance. But it is a problem with this circuit to get close enough and I lost quite a few seconds there but in the end it didn’t matter too much.
Question: Can you just describe your emotions and thoughts in the last three laps of the race? First realising you are P1, then bringing the victory home and then talking to the team on the radio?
Heikki Kovalainen: Well, of course in the last three laps there are not too many emotions, just to bring it home. Obviously at that point I had no need any more - that was the lap that I saw Felipe blow up, that was the last time I pushed, and then after that I just started to save the engine and save everything and just bring it home. Of course, I’m very, very happy. I know how hard we’ve worked and how hard the team has worked to bring forward upgrades for our car and we made some significant improvements in the last few months. The last few races have been very strong, not necessarily the results on my side but Lewis has been strong and the car has been performing strongly. Talking to the team was a happy moment, mainly because everyone has worked really hard. I feel satisfied, of course, for myself to have achieved this result and regardless of circumstances in Formula One you don’t have any style points; it’s ten points, end of story. It’s just a very happy moment and now I’m going to go for a little break and try to become better through this little break.
