I pushed throughout the race - Kovalainen

The ING Renault F1 Team driver from Finland, Heikki Kovalainen, talks about his Bahrain afternoon. The young rookie driver finished the Bahrain Grand Prix in 9th place, but felt that he could have scored points if he didn't have problems with the hard tyres in his last stint. Here follows the interview with Kovalainen.

“In certain respects the priority when you’re racing in your first grand prix is to see the chequered flag, and that’s what I’ve managed to do for the third time in three events. But I finished just outside the points and I‘m not happy. I’m disappointed, in fact, because I spent the afternoon fighting for the best result possible. I’m also gutted as the team has been working so hard for the past few weeks that I’d like to have thanked them by finishing in the first eight. It’ll be for next time.”

“I was pretty busy, I can tell you! Things got off to a good start as I managed to pull back two places immediately by getting in front of Nico Rosberg and Jarno Trulli. It was all a bit frantic in the first corner but I made it through. Unfortunately, my car was heavily loaded with fuel and my soft tyres went off fairly quickly. My first stint was long, so Trulli got back in front and after a short, sharp scrap Nico did too.”

“In the second stint on soft rubber with less fuel on board, the car’s handling was okay again. I began to pull in some of the drivers in front and I started to think that a points finish was on the cards.”

“During my last stint on hard tyres the car became very difficult to drive once again. The rear seemed to want to break away at every moment. I did not give up but it became impossible to catch the others. So I was pretty busy this afternoon like everybody else in the team. I stretched myself to the limit! Its the best way to bounce back as quickly as possible.”