Heikki Kovalainen displayed all of the Finnish fighting spirit that attracted McLaren-Mercedes to sign him up in the first place, by getting his season firmly back on-track in the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours this weekend.
The 26-year-old proved that he comes from very much the same mould as that of countrymen and
McLaren predecessors Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen and
Kimi Raikkonen by converting a penalised tenth place on the starting grid into an excellent fourth position at the chequered flag, crossing the line a scant seven tenths of a second shy of the final rostrum position and with a faster lap than all bar the runaway race-winning Ferraris to his name.
After finally managing to clear the defensive
Renault of
Nelsinho Piquet during the opening flurry of pit visits, Kovalainen went on to successfully hunt down and pass
Red Bull Racing's
Mark Webber, before leapfrogging both
Fernando Alonso and erstwhile world championship leader
Robert Kubica in the second round of stops and chasing down and hounding
Toyota's
Jarno Trulli all the way to the close, very nearly finding a way past on the penultimate lap as the duo went quite literally wheel-to-wheel in a breathtaking battle.
“Given yesterday's grid penalty, this was a very good result,” he reflected after maintaining his strong record around the Nevers circuit that had previously seen him triumph there in GP2 back in 2005. “It also shows that we had a great strategy to be able to come from tenth on the grid to fourth at the finish.
“During the first stint I lost a lot of time trying to get past slower cars, but after that, fortunately, I was able to overtake, build a cushion and close the gap to the guys in front. The car felt fantastic throughout the whole race, and the
Bridgestone Potenza tyres worked really well.
“During the closing laps, I found myself behind Jarno and tried everything I could to overtake him, but I just couldn't quite make it. He defended third place very well, so well done to him for that.”
