McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh believes Heikki Kovalainen has no reason to be ashamed of his performance at the Italian Grand Prix.
The Finn was forced to settle for second place on the starting grid behind Sebastian Vettel at Monza and then had to watch as the Toro Rosso driver led from start to finish in the rain.
McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh insists the team are more than happy with the Kovalainen's showing in Italy.
"Heikki has no reason to feel disappointed - the reality is that he didn't put a foot wrong all weekend and looked blindingly fast in dry, damp and full-wet conditions; fuel-corrected, he would have been on pole position comfortably," Whitmarsh said.
"He struggled a little with visibility in the early stages of the race and had a few difficulties with his tyres and brake temperatures, but we are not disappointed with his result.
"Let's not forget that Heikki is fearsomely quick but is still very much developing his approach. We have a clearly defined programme for him in the weeks and months ahead and feel certain that he will only grow stronger."
Whitmarsh was also relieved that Lewis Hamilton managed to turn things around on Sunday after a nightmare qualifying session.
"In conditions such as we saw at Monza last weekend, it can be very difficult to tick every single box and have a trouble-free weekend. Our difficulties started on Saturday afternoon when our weather forecasting predicted the rains were easing, which led us to fit standard wets to Lewis' car for Q2.
"Unfortunately, when we quickly aborted this run as the rain intensified, valuable time was lost when Lewis was called into the weigh bridge and we could, thereafter, not generate the necessary tyre temperatures to be completed in that session.
"Having said that, I think we recovered very well from Saturday, very consciously played the numbers correctly on Sunday, and secured a sizeable haul of constructors' points."
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