Friday: Positive day for Caterham despite Kovalainen’s crash
Heikki Kovalainen had an accident during Free Practice 1, but the Caterham team mechanics managed to repair his CT01 so he could run in Free Practice 2. Despite limited track time, the Finnish driver is happy with the competitiveness of his car. The same optimism is shared by Vitaly Petrov, who believes he can be competitive this weekend in Canada.
Heikki Kovalainen – 19th and 16th
«First of all, I would like to thank the team for doing a great job of repairing the car and making sure it was ready for Free Practice 2. I made a mistake coming out of turn 9 and hit the wall, causing significant damage to the car but, fortunately, not the chassis. As soon as I got it back to the garage, the guys started working to rebuild it, so succeeding in that and allowing me to run in the second practice session was a great achievement.
During the first session, the single-seater felt good from the first lap. In free practice 2, I had the same positive feeling regarding the balance, and I think we are good – not as close as in Monaco but certainly close enough to have a great race on Sunday.
Vitaly Petrov – 18th and 18th
I am delighted with the way both sessions went. The 64 laps covered during free practice 1 and 2 give us a lot of data to work on tonight, and we quickly found a good balance with both types of tires, so I think we can continue to make progress this weekend. We obviously cannot say where we stand compared to the cars ahead because everyone is running with different fuel loads and different tires at different times, but I think we are doing well. The goal now is to maintain this good momentum and see what happens during qualifying and the race.
