Heikki Kovalainen: “I don’t know what he was thinking”

Vitaly Petrov and Heikki Kovalainen may have given Caterham a useful boost in the team’s battle with Marussia for 10^th in the championship by finishing 13^th and 14^th in Valencia, but both men had clashes with Toro Rossos that cost them a shot at a better result – and possibly even a spot in the top 10.

Kovalainen was hit by Jean-Eric Vergne on lap 27, forcing Heikki to drive half a lap with a front puncture. Meanwhile the debris dropped by the STR subsequently triggered the safety car.

Vergne was later given a 10-place grid drop for Silverstone, plus a €25,000 fine, as the stewards felt that the collision was totally unnecessary.

“I don’t know what he was thinking,” Kovalainen told this blog. “I thought he was going to get past me quite easily there. He obviously caught me, but he just ran into me. Luckily nothing else happened.

“He never had a go up to that point – it was the first time he got the DRS, and he had a go. It totally surprised me. I made him go around the outside at least, but I wasn’t going to give him a hard time. Under braking he just turned in to me.

“I’ve never come together with him anywhere, I don’t know him at all, and we never had any issues. After that I had a vibration from the front upright, so there was probably something not quite right.”

Kovalainen lost a lap as he drove slowly to the pits, and while he got it back after the lapped cars were waved by, he and others were stuck behind Pedro de la Rosa’s slow HRT as the group attempted to catch up. Heikki was thus 23s off the back of the pack at the restart.

“It was looking quite good, because I was on a two-stop strategy, and I was trying to stretch the middle stint. I was taking it a bit easier with my tyres to make them last a few more laps, and I was feeling quite comfortable. I was hopeful that by the time we got the last stint I’d be able to jump a few cars. Maybe next time.”

Petrov meanwhile ran an unusual three-stop strategy which meant he was able to go flat out throughout, until a clash with Daniel Ricciardo meant a fourth stop for a new nose.