Lewis’s victory will doubtless dominate the headlines, but Heikki Kovalainen coped well once again with adversity.
Martin“He did, yes. Just before the start he lost control of his clutch - it was probably a software glitch with the monitor that was plugged into the car, but we need to investigate that. We changed the steering wheel, reset the system and got him going, but Heikki was very unlucky because he subsequently spent much of his race in traffic. On a clear road, though, he showed how quick he can be around here. “
What happened during the second Safety Car period? He seemed to lose out there, too.
Martin“He was one lap down, behind Adrian Sutil, and we asked the FIA whether he was allowed to pass Adrian and make up the lost lap, as the rules permit. He was eventually cleared to pass, but the race then restarted while he was still in no man’s land. He carried on pushing, though, and scored a valuable point, so despite everything he did a fantastic job. “
He was particularly quick at the end and set the second fastest lap of the race.
Martin“That’s all the more commendable because it’s not always easy to maintain your focus and motivation if you are just scrapping for the odd point. His attitude was fantastic. “
We are one third of the way through the 2008 season and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes has scored two wins to Ferrari’s four. How do you assess the state of play?
Martin“It looks as though the title will probably be a race between Ferrari and ourselves, although I still wouldn’t discount BMW and others. We’ll just carry on trying to improve the car between now and the end of the year. If we can progress at a better rate than Ferrari we’ll win the championship, and vice versa. Aside from the events every fortnight there’s a race between races to develop the car. “
You recently did some preparatory testing for the next race, in Canada. How did that go?
Martin“We ran for one day at Le Castellet in France, and it was a productive exercise. Braking and straight-line speeds are critical factors in Canada and we’ve been focusing on those areas. This year our car has excelled in sweeping, high-speed corners: Montreal hasn’t got any of those, but we have done very well there before and I’m confident we’ll be very strong again. ”
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