Saturday report: Sauber – Kobayashi is in Q3, not Perez
The Sauber drivers experienced different fortunes in qualifying. While Kamui Kobayashi made it to Q3, his teammate, Mexican Sergio Perez, failed in Q2 and will start from 16th position on the grid. Both drivers will be aiming for points once again.
Kamui Kobayashi – 9th and 10th
« I am quite happy with today’s qualification. Of course, I hoped to improve a bit during my very last stint, especially since, unlike in Melbourne, I still had a set of soft tires left. But I think it was difficult to extract more from the car today. Nevertheless, the team did a very good job of improving it after the few problems we had yesterday. We found a few small things last night, during this morning’s free practice, we struggled a bit but we knew what to do.
It was here, in Sepang, last year, that I reached Q3 for the first time in my F1 career. The race will be very interesting, especially in terms of tire degradation with the heat. I can definitely aim for points.
Sergio Perez – 12th and 16th
« I am a bit disappointed because we had the potential to make it to Q3 if I had managed my last lap. During my second stint in Q2, I got caught in traffic on my out lap. On my flying lap, the first two sectors went well, but in sector 3 I had no grip left and was understeering a lot. Now, I hope we have a good race strategy as I will still aim for points, which, of course, will not be easy given my starting position. It will be a demanding race, but I am eager to take on the challenge. »
James Key
« We began Free Practice 3 with some modifications to both cars after encountering some balance difficulties yesterday. […] we couldn’t get the soft tires to work, but today was different, and both drivers were happier with these tires. We did a single run in Q1, which was sufficient. In Q2, Kamui had a set of new tires and a set of scrubbed tires, and Sergio had two new sets of tires. It’s disappointing for Sergio, whose timed lap looked quite good, but unfortunately, he lost three to four tenths in the last sector. Certainly, he could have been much closer to the top ten, but we know he is good in races, as he showed in Melbourne […].
Kamui had a very good lap to get into Q3 and after that we did only one stint, which is always a bit risky on new tires. I don’t think we could have gone significantly further into the top ten, but maybe a little more. We certainly can’t complain as Kamui once again had a good qualifying session.
