- Brazilian Grand Prix - Lotus
Kovalainen takes blame for missing Q3
Heikki Kovalainen has taken the blame for missing out on a top-ten grid position at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Kovalainen, who is subbing in for Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus for the final two races of the season, was just 0.015s off a place in Q3 and will start Sunday's race from 11th on the grid. However, he did not blame the wet conditions or changes to his car overnight, saying he simply was not quick enough when it mattered.
"It's nothing to do with the conditions, the conditions were fine," he said. "I've been in much worse conditions and it's the same for everybody. I was just simply not fast enough today. I didn't have any major issues. I was just not as quick as yesterday and that was it.
"We made some changes and we need to have a look. It wasn't quite as good as yesterday but we need to have a better look at what we are going to do. I don't want to blame the car, it has the pace and I was just not fast enough."
Kovalainen admitted moving forward from his grid position would be tough based on his qualifying performance.
"Today that was the maximum I could do and I didn't have any more than that," he said. "I didn't make any mistakes or have any more on offer, so based on that it will be tough tomorrow. Anything can happen and of course you look to go forward and improve, but today has been tougher than yesterday. We had a better day yesterday."
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