Mixed feelings for Caterham drivers at Korea

F1 Grand Prix, GP Korea, Korean International Circuit

Vitaly Petrov and Heikki Kovalainen qualified for the Korean GP in 19th and 20th positions respectively. While Vitaly was content with his qualifying performance, Heikki struggled on with the setup issues and hence was unable to match his teammate.

Heikki Kovalainen, car 20, chassis CT01-#3:
FP3: 1.41.437, 20th
Q1: 1.40.333, 20th “I’ve struggled all weekend to find a setup I’m happy with and that continued today in qualifying. We went for three runs, one on the softs and two one lap runs on the supersofts to help try and find a balance but it just wasn’t there today. On my last lap in Q1 I still had understeer in the last four corners – perhaps without that I’d have been able to find a bit more time, but it just wasn’t there. Tyre strategy tomorrow will be key. We saw last weekend in Japan that we can fight in the early stages of the race so let’s see if we can turn this weekend around in the race.”

Vitaly Petrov, car 21, chassis CT01-#2:
FP3: 1.41.114, 19th
Q1: 1.40.207, 19th
“I’m really happy with the performance today. I’ve had a couple of problems on the car that has cost me track time this weekend but the team have worked really hard to keep us moving so thanks to them for helping me get the most out of it in all three practice sessions and in quali today.

“My last lap was really good, probably as quick as we could go around here. We timed it right so traffic wasn’t an issue and to finish over a second clear of the cars behind is good for the whole team. We haven’t stopped pushing and the aim now is to have a clean start tomorrow and try and carry over this sort of performance into Sunday’s race.”