Heikki happy with third

Finn at the sharp end despite 'rallycross' moments

Last updated: 19th July 2008

heikki kovalainen mclaren 19/7/2008

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Heikki Kovalainen admitted luck was on his side in taking third on the grid for Sunday's German Grand Prix after a couple of momentary 'offs' during qualifying.

The excursions came during the final session at Hockenheim, with McLaren Mercedes driver Kovalainen twice running wide at the exit of the final corner.

Vital tenths were therefore lost, leaving the Finn - who claimed his first pole last time out at Silverstone - third on the grid behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Kovalainen admitted to making mistakes during the session but, with McLaren's MP4-23 car looking particularly impressive during the last two race weekends, he was generally happy with his performance.

"First of all, it's been a good day for the team," he said. "I think our car has been performing really, really well, the last four or five weeks. I think we've made some significant steps forward and we're going to carry on like this.

"For myself in qualifying, the car felt the best it has felt all week so far, and going into Q3, I was very confident and felt I could challenge for pole position.

"But on my first lap in Q3 at Turn 12, I just lost the rear end and went wide.

"I don't know what happened there, but I think I just tried to go too deep into the corner.

"And I think I damaged a part of the bottom of the car but I was didn't feel any of the damage.

"On my second run, there was a little bit of 'rallycross' also on the exit of the last turn so I very happy with third place if you take into account of all of the moments today."