Malaysia: Plus24

The very self-critical Heikki Kovalainen has talked about his cautious first lap at the Malaysian Grand Prix, citing his memory of Melbourne as the reason for his lacklustre start. While team mate Giancarlo Fisichella shot off the start line in typical Renault fashion, Heikki took a little longer to move through the field, and feels that he didn’t want to throw the race away in the first corner. However, his first points have come as a welcome relief and should keep the fiery words of Flavio Briatore at bay a little while longer.

My start was okay but through the first corner I got in a position where there were cars all around me and I just had to back off a little bit. I didn’t want to lose a front wing or have any accidents there because it was important for me to finish the race without any incidents after Melbourne. Looking back now it’s easy to say maybe I should have done something a bit different but at that point I thought it was going well. Heikki Kovalainen.

Lewis Hamilton is happy camper this Monday morning, as he feels more confident in his abilities. Hamilton has admitted that his primary concern was defending positions during a race, but as he clearly demonstrated in Malaysia, the young Brit is more than capable at squeezing drivers who challenge his position.

I think defending is ten times harder than trying to overtake someone I would say. I always wondered, when I was finally challenged by someone in the race, someone like Kimi or Fernando, if I was going to be able to defend – and I was. So I was able to do that and I was really happy. Lewis Hamilton.

BMW have decided to use both their race drivers for the Friday Free Practice sessions at next weekends Bahrain Grand Prix. This move is different to how BMW have used their drivers in the previous two races, which saw Sebastian Vettel fill this role in at least one of the sessions. The use of the test driver on Friday has caused lead driver Nick Heidfeld some concern as he feels he is missing out on vital track time, and has recently made his feelings known via the media. BMW said that they are not necessarily changing their policy, and are claiming that their testers are busy next weekend competing in other events. Vettel is driving in the World Series, and second test driver Timo Glock is competing in the GP2 round in Bahrain.

Formula One, F1, Malaysian Grand Prix