Heikki Kovalainen blames safety car for poor result at Singapore

Heikki Kovalainen firmly believes that the safety car ruined his ability to secure a decent result at the Singapore Grand Prix, a race which saw the Caterham duo of Kovalainen and Petrov finished 16th and 19th respectively. With the Marussia of Glock finishing 12th, Caterham have now dropped to 11th in the Constructors’ Championship.

After the two safety car periods, Heikki Kovalainen had elected to remain out on track whereas the majority of the field pitted under safety car conditions. This tactic saw Kovalainen rise steadily up the field, however once the race was resumed after the second safety car intervention, the 30-year-old Finn was forced to pit for new tyres, which therefore saw him drop back through the order.

“For me that was a good race until the safety cars.” Explained Heikki Kovalainen, after what was a tough 61-lap race. “We decided to stay out but when we restarted for the second time I’d probably been out too long and the tyres were starting to give up. I had to stop again and there wasn’t enough time to recover from there so that was the end of the race. If it hadn’t been for the safety car I’m sure we’d have finished much higher.”

Due to the topsy-turvy nature of the Singapore Grand Prix, both the Caterham and Marussia duo were able to fight with the likes of Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Hulkenberg in the closing stages of the race. With Vitaly Petrov and Heikki Kovalainen suffering an unlucky end to the race, Timo Glock was able to secure Marussia’s most competitive result in 12th. This result for the Banbury-based outfit knocked Caterham down to 11th in the Constructors’ Championship, which might not sound like much, yet could cost the Leafield-based outfit millions if the Championship order remains unchanged.

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