Formula One news

Kovalainen leading the way for McLaren

With the pressure increasing to retain his McLaren race seat for next season, Heikki Kovalainen led the way for McLaren in both practice sessions ahead of the European Grand Prix on Friday. The Finn finished second to Rubens Barrichello in the morning before dropping to tenth later in the afternoon.

Heikki joined McLaren in place of Fernando Alonso last year

With McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh having admitted that - whilst he has no doubts over Kovalainen as a team player - the Finn's race performances must improve, Nico Rosberg has been strongly linked as a possible replacement for 2010 although Finn Heikki delivered two strong runs in practice.

"I am quite satisfied with my day's running," he said later in the day. "We ran exactly the programme that we'd planned and the car feels pretty good; for me, this has been a much better start to my weekend than in Hungary and I feel like we're in good shape. The pace at the front is very close but I think we're in the hunt - we now go into tomorrow fully focused on getting a good result."

World Champion team-mate Lewis Hamilton wound up third, one spot behind Heikki, in the first session before completing only three laps due to spinning and collecting a wall in the second.

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