Formula One news

Whitmarsh praises Kovalainen

McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh is pleased with the way the team's new driver for this season is performing. Heikki Kovalainen has faced a bit of a difficult start of the season, and in Monaco a software problems caused him to start from the pitlane. Whitmarsh has admitted it was probably a team's mistake.

Looking back at Kovalainen's performance in Monaco Whitmarsh said about the Finn: "Just before the start he lost control of his clutch - it was probably a software glitch with the monitor that was plugged into the car, but we need to investigate that. We changed the steering wheel, reset the system and got him going, but Heikki was very unlucky because he subsequently spent much of his race in traffic. On a clear road, though, he showed how quick he can be around here."

He continued saying about Heikki's race: "He was one lap down, behind Adrian Sutil, and we asked the FIA whether he was allowed to pass Adrian and make up the lost lap, as the rules permit. He was eventually cleared to pass, but the race then restarted while he was still in no man's land. He carried on pushing, though, and scored a valuable point, so despite everything he did a fantastic job."

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