Heikki Kovalainen is remaining upbeat ahead of Sunday’s 57-lap European Grand Prix, despite seeing the gap to the midfield teams increase during this afternoon’s qualifying session. The Lotus driver posted the 19th fastest time in Q1, almost 1.5 seconds slower than Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari who will start one place further up the grid.
"For me that was a pretty good performance," Kovalainen commented. "I found some more time on my second run and I definitely got as much as I could out of myself and the car, so even though the gap to the cars ahead isn't what we want it to be it's still satisfying to have delivered on that goal.
"We knew from the practice sessions that the time difference would be about what it turned out to be and despite the hard work put in right across the whole team we weren't able to close it up any more."
Italian team-mate Jarno Trulli added: "Traffic played a major role in my qualifying today. Everywhere I went it seemed as if there was someone right on the racing line, so to be honest I'm a bit disappointed.
"The car felt good and without the traffic I'm sure there was more pace in it, but even though we were all told not to back off in sector three there were other cars doing that and unfortunately that had a big influence on the times.
"However, now it's all about the race tomorrow and I think we can continue to show that the speed of the car in race trim is good. I want to make sure I have another good start and let's see what happens from there."
Also on Saturday:
Trulli denies retirement rumours
Series
Formula 1
Personalities
Heikki Kovalainen
Jarno Trulli
Teams
Caterham
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:36.975 | 15 |
| 2. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:37.163 | 19 |
| 3. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:37.380 | 13 |
| 4. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:37.454 | 20 |
| 5. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:37.535 | 20 |
| 6. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:37.645 | 14 |
| 7. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:38.231 | 15 |
| 8. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:38.240 | 18 |
| 9. | N. Heidfeld | Lotus Renault | no time | 17 |
| 10. | A. Sutil | Force India | no time | 14 |
| Full results | ||||
| Jarno Trulli | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Jarno Trulli photos | |||
| Heikki Kovalainen | |||
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| More Heikki Kovalainen photos | |||
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