Heikki Kovalainen, 14th: “My start wasn’t the best I’ve had this year but I was keeping pace with Webber and Ricciardo for the first few laps. Unfortunately we had a KERS issue early on and that obviously hit my pace for the whole race. We had opted for a two stop strategy so for the first stint I was looking after the tyres until we boxed. The stop went well and my pace was good but then Vergne made what looks like a rookie mistake, hit me and I had to come in for a new nose. From that point I was just trying to get to the end of the race and with about five or six laps left the tyres were gone. Despite that 13th and 14th is another decent result for the team. We’ve had a very good weekend here and now we can look forward to making more gains at the next race so we leave on a positive note.”
Vitaly Petrov, 13th: “I’m really pleased with how today’s race went. I made a pretty good start and was just behind Heikki after the first corner – I was pretty careful into T1 as I didn’t want to make any mistakes and from that point it was really about managing the tyres and following the instructions from my engineer. I want to thank the boys for the fantastic job they did in the pitstops, particularly when I had to box for a new nose late on in the race.
“Even though we were running tenth at one point I’m not sure a point was quite within reach today, but it’s really encouraging to see how we’ve progressed here and we know we have more to come in Silverstone so we have something good to fight for and that’s great for the whole team.”
Mark Smith, Technical Director: “Our final positions today are just reward for a very good performance right across the whole team today. Without the contact with Vergne and Ricciardo we may have been able to finish a couple of places higher, but we have to be pleased with how we reacted to the incidents on track, and the fact that we have clearly made some gains here. We have more upgrades to come for Silverstone and if we keep up this level of momentum we have a very exciting second half of the season ahead of us.”
Riad Asmat, Caterham Group Chief Executive: “What a race! That’s what makes this the greatest sport on the planet, right throughout the grid. I am very proud of the job the whole team did today. The pitstops were excellent, the strategy calls were spot on and both drivers pushed as hard as they could. The two incidents obviously cost us time on both cars, but it is very good to see that we are so close to the pack ahead – enough to give Heikki and Vitaly a chance to fight and another 13th and 14th place helps us consolidate our place in the Championship, so this has been a good weekend.”
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