Feeling more comfortable - Kovalainen

The ING Renault F1 Team’s Finnish driver, Heikki Kovalainen, talks about his Friday on the Barcelona circuit. The R27 showed improvement during the free practice sessions from yesterday as Fisichella clocked the 2nd fastest time in the afternoon and Kovalainen was 3rd.

“Pretty well overall. We completed our programme evaluating the tyres and working on the set-up. We did a few laps at the end of the second session to test a few parameters. The fuel system posed some problems for us in the opening races, and we wanted to check a couple of things to make sure they don’t happen again. The times we set are a bit misleading. We won’t be battling for second and third places tomorrow; that we’re sure of. But I think we’ve improved the car since Bahrain. My times were competitive on the long runs. Our aim tomorrow is to get into the top ten in qualifying.”

“Part of it is down to the new front suspension, and then we changed the settings between Giancarlo’s car and mine. I had also been suffering from more degradation on the rear tyres than Fisico, but today I felt more at ease. However they are small details, and not a major set-up difference.”

“Yes, the engine was good and everything went well. Having a couple of problem-free sessions when I’d had some pretty disrupted practice days in the first few races is good for morale.”

“I think I’d have set a very quick time. Unfortunately, I caught a Red Bull, ran wide exiting turn 12 and I spun.”

“Yes, it is. It’s a question of trust between yourself and your car. If we could improve the R27 by five-tenths per lap, I think I could add two or three more by my driving just because I’d have more confidence. With a little bit of luck, it’ll happen soon!”