We have seen a lot of Heikki Kovalainen lately, which is not entirely a bad thing. First off there was his frightening crash and subsequent retirement in the Spanish GP, which thankfully he emerged from unscathed. And hot on the heels of that, the Finn put his McLaren on the front row of the grid for the following round of the Turkish GP, alongside rival Felipe Massa.

On his maiden visit to the front row in Formula 1, hopes were high in the McLaren garage that Kovalainen would get a good start – albeit off the dirty side of the grid – and be able to attack Massa going into the front corner. Crucially, Kovalainen had out qualified both his teammate Hamilton, and current world champion, Kimi Raikkonen. All the signs were auspicious that Kovi might be on target to take his first win in Formula One.

Alas it was not to be, with the Finn blotting his copybook slightly with a poor start off the line. Although all was not lost then by any means, matters were further complicated when he had a slight coming together at turn one with fellow Finn Raikkonen, which resulted in a slow puncture of the rear left tyre.

The McLaren driver dived into the pits on lap three, and although the safety car was out on track whilst he pitted following the first corner crash between Fisichella and Nakajima, the unscheduled stop still dropped him to 18th place – dead last as Fisichella and Nakajima had already retired by the time he rejoined the race.

But there were still 55 laps to go in which anything could happen, so began an absolute storming drive from Kovalainen as he sliced his way through the field, working his way back up as high as 8th place at one stage.

First to fall victim to the charging McLaren driver was Adrian Sutil in the Force India, and he was followed quickly by Sebastian Vettel in the Torro Rosso. Easy pickings you might say, given that Kovi was driving a McLaren. But he then claimed the scalp of Piquet Jnr, whilst Bourdais took himself out of the equation by firing off into the gravel on lap 25, thus saving Kovi the bother of passing him. The Finn then stopped from 11th place on lap 27 for his second - but first scheduled - stop of the race dropping him back and it all started over again.

After pitting he passed Glock, and re-passed him again in a dice reminiscent of Schumacher, before seeing off Button, Barichello, Coulthard and Rosberg in similar fashion. It was looking as though Kovi was on for a points finish having hauled himself up into 8th place, before unfortunately having to dive into the pits on lap 51 for a splash and dash.

He rejoined in 13th position and in the handful of laps remaining, was only able to overtake Glock in a move that must have seemed like Groundhog Day to the Finn before he eventually finished in 12th place.

On the face of it, finishing in 12th spot – well out of the points – does not really sound like an achievement to be writing home about. But the figures don’t do justice to the fantastic race Kovalainen drove, and the spirited battles he engaged in to bring the car home.

Kovi is no stranger to criticism, having famously been publicly castigated by then boss Flavio Briatore after his rather ordinary debut at the 2007 Australian GP.

But to his credit, he took the “feedback” on board and improved vastly and immediately, eventually ending the season with a maiden podium at the Japanese GP, taking 2nd place honours. Given the wide and varied shortcomings of the Renault R27 he was driving at the time, this result was no mean feat. A drive for McLaren in 2008 was the reward, and we know that McLaren do not hand out race seats lightly.

It has been widely reported that Kovalainen himself is disappointed with the results of the race yesterday, feeling that he could, and should, have been able to challenge for victory. That’s as may be, but F1 is not the place for regrets. Kovi needs to work on his shortcomings, and put that knowledge to good use in the forthcoming rounds. But that does not take away from his strengths in the slightest, and Kovi should look back on his actual racecraft as one of his finest efforts.

Thus, Kovi is awarded the inaugural F1-Pitlane honours of "Drive of the Day".