Kovalainen confident team is prepared for any weather

F1 Grand Prix, GP Brazil, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos

CaterhamF1 drivers Vitaly Petrov and Heikki Kovalainen qualified for the Brazilian GP in 19th and 20th position respectively. The team have kept their main rivals behind and hope with some unpredictable weather to take back 10th place in the constructors championship.

Heikki Kovalainen, car 20, chassis CT01-#3:
FP3: 1.15.707, 19th, 21 laps
Q1: 1.17.086, 20th, 14 laps
“At the start of qualifying it was quite tricky as there was some standing water on track in the first couple of laps and even though the grip levels improved there was still less grip than in FP3. In the end the times kept coming down and maybe we had a chance to get into Q2, but we can be reasonably happy with how it finished. On my final lap I made a couple of small mistakes, but apart from that I was close to getting as much as I could out of the car so now we move on to tomorrow. The race is going to be really tight – if the forecasts are right it will be pretty tense out there but we know what to do and we’re looking forward to it.”

Vitaly Petrov, car 21, chassis CT01-#2:
FP3: 1.15.159, 18th, PET 22 laps
Q1: 1.17.073, 19th, PET 14 laps
“I’m very pleased with the result today. It wasn’t quite enough to get into Q2 but in the conditions today I think we can be happy with where we ended up. On the first couple of laps turn four was completely wet so I had to make sure we could maintain tyre temperatures and keep pushing throughout the whole lap until the dry line appeared and in the end it paid off. Tomorrow’s going to be really interesting – we showed yesterday and today that the gap to the cars ahead is a bit closer here than it has been in recent races and the way the weather’s been shifting around means anything can happen in the race. I’m looking forward to it – whatever happens it’s going to be really good for the fans and I hope we can end the season positively.”