McLaren happy with Heikki

Kovalainen: No reason to feel disappointed

Related links

Teams

• McLaren

Drivers

• Lewis Hamilton
• Heikki Kovalainen

Also see

• F1 forum
• Live coverage
• Bet now with Sky Bet

McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh has defended Heikki Kovalainen's performance in the Italian Grand Prix after he trailed in second behind Sebastian Vettel.

Although the young German driver took all the plaudits with both his and Toro Rosso's first pole position in a wet qualifying session, Kovalainen's second place on the grid ensured that he started favourite for the race.

However, with the rain returning once more on Sunday, Vettel defied expectations and drove into the distance at Monza, taking the chequered flag over 12 seconds ahead of the Finn.

Indeed, having started 15th on the grid, Kovalainen's team-mate Lewis Hamilton at once stage appeared better poised to challenge Vettel before a drying track forced him to make an extra pit stop.

But Whitmarsh has defended his driver, saying that although Kovalainen had problems adjusting to the conditions, McLaren were nevertheless satisfied with his showing.

"Heikki has no reason to feel disappointed - the reality is that he didn't put a foot wrong all weekend and looked blindingly fast in dry, damp and full-wet conditions; fuel-corrected, he would have been on pole position comfortably," Whitmarsh said.

"He struggled a little with visibility in the early stages of the race and had a few difficulties with his tyres and brake temperatures, but we are not disappointed with his result.

"Let's not forget that Heikki is fearsomely quick but is still very much developing his approach. We have a clearly defined programme for him in the weeks and months ahead and feel certain that he will only grow stronger."

Relieved

Whitmarsh was also relieved that Lewis Hamilton managed to turn things around on Sunday after his disappointing qualifying session.

The current Championship leader went out on intermediate tyres in the second session - a decision which backfired when weather conditions worsened.

Hamilton then lost valuable time when called to the pitlane weigh bridge, and subsequently failed to progress to the final session after switching to extreme wets.

Neverthless, he climbed as high as second during the race before eventually finishing seventh - a result which leaves him one point ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa in the title race with four races left.

"In conditions such as we saw at Monza last weekend, it can be very difficult to tick every single box and have a trouble-free weekend. Our difficulties started on Saturday afternoon when our weather forecasting predicted the rains were easing, which led us to fit standard wets to Lewis' car for Q2," Whitmarsh explained.

"Unfortunately, when we quickly aborted this run as the rain intensified, valuable time was lost when Lewis was called into the weigh bridge and we could, thereafter, not generate the necessary tyre temperatures to be completed in that session.

"Having said that, I think we recovered very well from Saturday, very consciously played the numbers correctly on Sunday, and secured a sizeable haul of constructors' points."