- United States Grand Prix - Lotus
Kovalainen aiming higher than P8
Heikki Kovalainen says he is aiming to finish higher than his grid position in tomorrow's United States Grand Prix.
Making his debut for Lotus, Kovalianen qualified in an impressive eighth place while team-mate Romian Grosjean lines up third. Kovalainen said he hasn't been given a target for the race but because the team is in a battle with the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari in the constructors' championship he is eyeing strong points.
"Nobody has given me a specific target to be ahead of any specific team or driver," Kovalainen said. "But of course I will try to finish ahead of as many cars as possible and I will try to move up from where I'm starting. But we'll wait and see how it works out; it's difficult to predict, so I'll just try to maximise the performance and the potential that we have."
Although targeting a finishing position higher than eighth, Kovalainen believes he couldn't have qualified any higher.
"I'm very happy. I mean like yesterday I didn't know what to expect and it was quite important I think to stay calm after yesterday which went better than perhaps anyone was thinking it would have gone. So it was important to stay calm for today because it was always going to be very close in qualifying and even a small mistake or a little bit off balance and you can drop out of the top ten. So it was a little bit tricky today, especially when it got cloudy I struggled a little bit with tyre temperatures and I couldn't perhaps get the best out of them. Overall I'm satisfied; there was no more on offer for me today, that was it."
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