“My thoughts of
Silverstone are quite positive. Firstly, for the weekend itself: it is another home race for us after Magny-Cours, with all the people from the factory at Enstone coming to support the team. So of course, a good result for them would be special.
“Also, we have shown in the last few races that we are closing the gap, and we are in the fight. When you are in a situation like that, you want to be racing every weekend, to try and make that little bit more progress. Our fight will be with
BMW again, and the target has to be to finish ahead of them.”
Kovalainen meanwhile has also got Renault’s German rivals in his sights, the Finn enjoying a prolonged run of form that has seen him start living up to the expectations placed upon him at the beginning of the year.
“We can go there in a good frame of mind. The test two weeks ago went very well, so we have a good baseline set-up for practice on Friday. As always, we will be looking to do the maximum, and I think we have a good opportunity to score points.
“France was a tough race, but I believe that our basic performance showed that we are gaining momentum all the time, as we improve the car. We are still recovering from the start to the season, and moving forwards. Hopefully that process will continue again this weekend.”
Furthermore, he has a good record at Silverstone stretching back to his British Formula 3 days, but also in Formula
Renault and GP2.
“I suppose so, yes. I won my first Formula Renault race here, and in 2002 won the Grand Prix support meeting in F3. I had two podiums in GP2 in 2005, but you know, none of that counts for anything in
F1. You get results through hard work, and making sure you have the best car possible for every lap of the race. Nothing will come for free just because I have done well here in the past.”
Ferrari – Felipe Massa (#5), Kimi Raikkonen (#6):
In some ways out of the blue given the hammering they suffered at the hands of
McLaren at Monaco, Montreal and Indianapolis, Ferrari’s resounding 1-2 finish in France is testament to a team so not used to being humbled that the only way to react was to turn the tables back around.
