It was a miserable start to the 2012 F1 season for Caterham, which saw both of its cars retire from the Australian Grand Prix. Shortly after Vitaly Petrov stopped on the start/finish straight, causing a Safety Car, Heikki Kovalainen returned to the pit lane.
“From very early on I could start to feel that the steering wheel was starting to point to the right in straight lines,” the Finn explained to Sky Sports. “Under braking the car was starting to pull to left, something weird was going on. We had to have a look and the steering arm was coming lose, so it was just one of those days.
“It was a tough day from the beginning, the KERS packed up at the start. DRS didn’t work either, but it picked up eventually, so it was one of those days. Even with these problems we were running well, but next time we’ll have another go.”
Before the start of the campaign, Kovalainen told GPUpdate.net that Q2 qualifying was a minimum requirement; on Saturday, the team managed 19th and 20th places.
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  J. Button | McLaren | 1:34:09.565 |
| 2. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | +2.139 |
| 3. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +4.075 |
| 4. | M. Webber | Red Bull | +4.547 |
| 5. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +21.565 |
| 6. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | +36.766 |
| 7. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | +38.014 |
| 8. | S. Perez | Sauber | +39.458 |
| 9. | D. Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | +39.556 |
| 10. | P. di Resta | Force India | +39.737 |
| Full results | |||
| Heikki Kovalainen | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Heikki Kovalainen photos | |||
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