Keeping track: Heikki Kovalainen takes you on a lap of Silverstone

 
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6 July 2012

Heikki Kovalainen is a former polesitter at the British GP, qualifying fastest in 2008 as a McLaren driver. He is now with Caterham.

'For me, the British Grand Prix seems like a home race. It’s the home race for my team and I used to live just 15 minutes away from the circuit.

I’d go to Silverstone when Formula One testing was on and I raced there a lot in junior formula events as well.

I’ve still got a lot of friends there working on the gates and I always make sure to stop and say ‘hi’ at the grand prix weekend. It’s a place I really love.

I finished my first British Grand Prix there in seventh in 2007, which was about the best I could have hoped for, and was fifth the next year when I got pole.

Had it not rained, I think I would have won the race. I was flying that weekend but I made a couple of mistakes in the race which was disappointing.

I’d won there in Formula Renault and in F3 and, obviously, I wanted to win there in F1 as well.

The circuit has changed a lot since then. It’s not for me to complain but the alterations made last season took away some of Silverstone’s character, though it’s still a good circuit.

If it’s dry — and you never know in England and especially at Silverstone — you can get some high-speed cornering which all us drivers like.

In those conditions, it’s all about momentum while in the rain you find yourself tiptoeing around in certain places. Either way, it’s a tough race.

The first two corners are fast, almost a flat-out right-left before you come to the first really slow complex. It’s a hairpin right and then left initially in second gear and then down to first. It’s pretty slow.

Then it’s onto the long straight before you arrive into the old Priory Corner. The left-hander there is quicker than it used to be.

From there, you’re trying to shoot yourself out of Brooklands and Luffield and onto the old main straight.

Here begins the best section of the track. One of the very best parts is Copse Corner where you’re almost flat out in top gear then you snake through Maggotts and Becketts where you hardly brake at all.

Out of that you shift down at the final left onto the Hangar Straight and try to set yourself to the left of the corner and get ready for Stowe.

You enter Stowe at high speed and shift down suddenly. You come out onto another straight before going into the last chicane, which is very slow. It’s a hard left and

then a long, looping right before you came back over the start-finish line for another lap.'

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