Heikki Kovalainen believes he got the most out of his car at the newly refurbished Silverstone circuit this afternoon, reaching the second stage of qualifying for the second time in 2011. The Lotus driver took advantage of the changeable conditions to make the first cut on a dry track surface, before setting the 17th fastest time in Q2.
"I'm very pleased with that," Kovalainen said. "Before qualifying we knew it would be important to get as much as we could out of the dry tyres because the showers were expected - small showers, but we just didn't know when they were going to happen so we had to give it everything on the slicks.
"At the start of Q1 I managed to get a pretty decent lap in and got everything out of the car almost immediately. Then when I went out for the second run the rain started but having got it right when it was dry we were already where we needed to be so the whole team can be pleased about where we ended up.
"Hopefully I can put in a good race from 17th. We are still getting everything out of the car and attacking the teams ahead - that's what we're here to do in our second season, so days like today are very encouraging for me and everyone in Team Lotus."
Team-mate Jarno Trulli added his thoughts: "The rain played its part in Q1 and the session unfortunately was cut short after I’d only had one run. It wasn’t quite good enough, which is a shame, but we have one car in Q2 which shows we have the pace to take the fight to the cars ahead, so hopefully I can have a strong race tomorrow, as long as I can avoid any bad luck with the conditions!"
Series
Formula 1
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Heikki Kovalainen
Jarno Trulli
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:30.399 | 19 |
| 2. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:30.431 | 19 |
| 3. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:30.516 | 20 |
| 4. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:31.124 | 16 |
| 5. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:31.898 | 21 |
| 6. | P. di Resta | Force India | 01:31.929 | 14 |
| 7. | P. Maldonado | Williams | 01:31.933 | 16 |
| 8. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 01:32.128 | 16 |
| 9. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:32.209 | 18 |
| 10. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:32.376 | 20 |
| 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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