Kovy: Third was McLaren’s maximum

Heikki Kovalainen believes his third place on the grid was the most McLaren could achieve at Sepang, having been outpaced by Ferrari since the start of practice on Friday.

The Finn edged out team-mate Lewis Hamilton in Q3 and felt he had extracted all the available speed from his MP4-23.

“Of course we were hoping to do a couple of places better but the Ferraris have both been very fast here all week and we had nothing more to give,” he said.

“I think third place was the maximum we could achieve today.

“I'm happy, it was a clean lap without any big mistakes – pretty much the same story as I had in Melbourne.”

Kovalainen says he is pushing harder in the cockpit as he becomes more familiar with his new environment at McLaren, and is upbeat about his prospects in Sunday's race.

“I try to go step by step and increase the pace as I get used to the team and to the car,” he said.

“I think we are on the right track and it's still a good position to start tomorrow.

“We'll see how the strategy goes. I will still aim to do the maximum.”

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