Formula 1

Caterham Drivers Benefit From Others Misfortune In Germany

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Caterham enjoyed a strong German Grand Prix yesterday at Hockenheim. They were able to capitalise on problems for a number of front running cars to finish sixteenth and nineteenth respectively.

Like Silverstone, wet weather on the Friday and Saturday meant that the team were unable to fully analyse a big update package that was brought to the car two weeks ago. Despite this, Vitaly Petrov and Heikki Kovalainen both enjoyed a reliable race, with both cars managing to see the checkered flag.

“I am pleased with my performance today. It was a pretty quiet race for me and the car felt good right from the first lap, so I think I got as much out of it as I could today. The last stint was particularly good – I knew Senna was on the softer tyres behind me and I had to make sure I stayed ahead, so I just focused on getting it to the flag without making any mistakes and I’m pleased for the team with where we ended up. It’s encouraging that the car did feel better today,” Petrov, who finished ahead of his team mate, said.

“Our pace in the early laps was good, as it has been all season, and hopefully we can carry
that through to Hungary – we certainly have a lot more data to work through now from having both cars finish today so that should help us even more next weekend,” he added.

Kovalainen meanwhile, was briefly delayed as the team changed the front wing on his car.

“The early part of the race was good for me. The car felt better than it has for most of the weekend and I was able to push, but then it felt like we had a problem after the second stop and from that point the front tyres were graining much more than they should have been. We stopped pretty late for a nose change to see if that could sort the problem out and it did as after that the car felt back to normal, but from then I was just focusing on getting the car to the end of the race,” the Finn said.

“It’s pretty clear that the hotter the temperatures are the better we perform, so hopefully we’ll be able to show more speed in Hungary – it’s a circuit I like and obviously I had my first win there so let’s see what happens next weekend.”

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