Good start to the weekend - Kovalainen

The Finnish ING Renault F1 Team driver, Heikki Kovalainen, made a smooth, trouble-free start to the US Grand Prix weekend at the Indianapolis Speedway yesterday. Just as the rookie driver had hoped to…

"It went really well, for a change! I didn’t have any technical problems, I didn’t make any mistakes, I did lots of laps and we worked hard on the set-up. I think we are in a pretty good position in terms of our performance tomorrow. I am pleased, but we need to carry on working hard on a few details to make further improvements."

"For me, it’s pretty clear. The softer tyre seems better, but the harder compound was not a disaster either! I think we are among the best in terms of tyre degradation. We are not having problems in that area, so we need to focus on a good set-up for qualifying and the race… and attack!"

"Probably, and for sure I have better feeling with the car than I did at this point in Monaco, or even more in Montreal. I hadn’t done enough laps with the soft tyres to get used to them. So clearly I am feeling more comfortable before qualifying. At the moment though, the focus is on practice, and making most of the final hour of preparations."