Kovalainen: Safety car was well timed!

Magny-Cours GP2 race winner Heikki Kovalainen has admitted that the appearance of the safety car was perfectly timed for his pit-stop strategy, but says he can't believe that other teams did not follow suit by stopping immediately.

The Finn was enjoying a comfortable run at the head of the field when Olivier Pla spun and stranded his car on the racing line opposite the pits. As soon as he realised the safety car would be called out, Kovalainen was on the radio to his pit crew, who managed to get him in even at the end of the same lap.

"I made the first call - I saw the safety car signs very early on the lap and gave them a call," he revealed, "{race engineer] Mick Cook said we were going to pit straight away - and I was very surprised to the other guys didn't follow me!

"It was that sort of window where we were already looking for a pit-stop to happen, and we didn't have to hurry because we were able to look behind when they were going to pit - Premat and Lopez and the other guys - so I think that, even without the pace car, we would have been able to take the lead back comfortably."

Despite having only qualified in fourth place, Kovalainen managed to snatch the lead going into turn two, having braved it out with poleman Alex Premat through Grande Courbe.

"The start was obviously the key," he admitted, "I managed to get a really good start, although it was close with Premat. But I was on the inside and thought I didn't need to give him and room. Actually, he wasn't giving me any room, but I just stayed there and grabbed on the wheel and waited until we touched a little bit. And we did touch a little bit - my steering was a little bent as a result!

"I think the most important thing was that the reaction was very, very good. I managed to go when the lights went, and I could see that the others were just a few hundredths of a second slower. The initial kick is the most important - that's when you make all the difference. Obviously, I had just a little bit of wheelspin to make the initial move, and then I managed to back off the throttle and pull away very, very nicely. The starts have always been very good for me, and this time it was especially good."

As well as being surprised that the likes of Premat and Nico Rosberg didn't follow him into the pits when the safety car appeared, Kovalainen was equally amazed at where he slotted back in to the line-up.

"I rejoined just behind them - and I thought 'this is going to be great'," he grinned, "For sure, they were not going to be able to pull away by half a minute in any circumstances, even if I was struggling a little bit and they were quicker.

"As it turned out, I could probably have overtaken them, but I would have needed to take a few more risks, and I didn't really need to. Lopez was behind me, and I could see he was not comfortable - I saw him locking the wheels and sliding all the time, so it was a struggle for him. I knew he was on the limit, and there was nothing more to come from him.

"Nico was pushing more, so I knew that, when Alex went in, the pace wouldn't ease up. Nico was able to go quicker and that meant I could pull away from Lopez. The main thing was to not make any mistakes and to just finish the race.

"I wasn't quite cruising, because the steering was bent and that affected me a little bit. Besides, it's better not to cruise because then you can make mistakes. I just tried to keep a reasonable rhythm and not do anything crazy - it was all under control. I knew all I had to do was keep a little bit of a gap to Lopez."