One of the McLaren driver's tyres was cut after contact with Kimi Raikkonen at the first corner, and it wrecked his chances of capitalizing on his pace to take what his team reckon would have been a maiden win.
But despite the disappointment, and the talk about what could have been, Kovalainen has insisted that it is more important to focus on the future and get himself back in the championship hunt.
"It was not the race I was planning, but what I can do?" said Kovalainen afterwards. "The problem with my left rear cost me the race, but we can't do anything about it. We have to move on."
Kovalainen's puncture in Turkey and his crash in Spain have seen him fall away from the championship leaders through no fault of his own.
However, he says his spirits remain high and all is not lost in terms of the title fight yet.
"Right now I'm not thinking about the championship, I'm just focusing race-by-race, trying to improve my performances. What can I do? The first few races I scored decent points, although the only trouble-free race has been Malaysia.
"All the others I've had trouble at some point throughout the weekend, or in the race. Hopefully we can turn things around, have a bit more luck and get some more points."
And he feels that updates to the car, allied to a refined set-up, have left him confident in delivering some top level results for McLaren.
"I have a feeling that potentially the car is very fast," he said. "All the way through the weekend I was happy.
"It was the most competitive weekend I've had. I felt very good and hopefully it can carry on like this."
Kovalainen also refused to lay blame on Raikkonen for their clash at the first corner.
"I was on the dirty side and it looked like it wasn't a great start, but it wasn't too bad anyway," he said. "I got away reasonably well, and then Kimi touched me in turn one, but I didn't even feel it.
"I didn't even know I had a puncture with the left rear until the safety car came in. I was told the tyre was deflating. It's one of those things, and it's a shame it happened here."
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