Lewis Hamilton's partner in F1

Ahead of this year's British Grand Prix Newsbeat has been talking to Heikki Kovalainen. He is Lewis Hamilton's partner and second driver at the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team. It is the 23-year-old's second season in Grand Prix racing. The Finnish racer is currently sixth in the drivers' championship.

How do you think the season's gone so far?

Let's put it in a very short way. I think there's been a lot of promise and the pace has been good but we haven't got good enough results yet. There's been a lot of incidents. I had an accident in Barcelona and also some technical issues and all these things that come up, I haven't managed to put the whole weekend together yet. But I'm planning to start it at Silverstone. Hopefully we can have a weekend without any incidents and deliver with the promise that we've had.

You've joined McLaren-Mercedes from Renault this year. How has the dynamic worked between you and Lewis Hamilton?

It's really good. It's working really well and I think we both are very competitive. I want to beat Lewis but, you know, he wants to beat me and together when we're on the track we push each other forward. On a personal level, we get along really well. We're both based in Geneva and we spend some together, do some sports. It gets quite competitive.

So what do you both do when you're not racing Grand Prix or testing?

We like sports, both of us. We do a lot of different kind of sports, playing tennis and squash and it gets very competitive.

Is Lewis Hamilton any good?

Yeah, he's very good. But not quite as good as me.

How much do you look forward to racing round the track at Silverstone with the first half being very, very quick?

Yeah, the first half is probably the best piece of track that you can actually get a go on a Formula One car. You don't have to slow down, you don't have to touch the brakes at all. You can just lift and shift the gear down and go back on the full power and that's where you feel the Formula One car performing at its best. I'm looking forward to Silverstone very much, probably as much as the whole team is looking forward to Silverstone as one of our home races. I was based near Silverstone for many, many years. I have some friends and family there that I know. And for me it feels like a home race as well. So, I'm really looking forward to having a go on Sunday.

Where would you like to be with 10 laps gone in Sunday's British Grand Prix?

The only position that I'm satisfied is if I'm leading the race and all the other positions means that there's more work to do. As a team we work towards that goal. 10 laps into the race I hope I'm fighting for a lead and fighting for the top position. From then onwards there's still a long way to go and it's just trying to maximise every lap we can go around. At the end the result should be good.

Heikki Kovalainen was talking to Newsbeat sports reporter David Garrido.

Read an interview with Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton's boss at McLaren, Ron Dennis