Saturday: Disappointing Qualification for Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi failed to qualify for Q2 today in India and although Sergio Perez managed to do so, he could only achieve the 17th and last time in Q2, which will make him start from 20th place tomorrow after the application of his penalty. The Sauber team therefore did not have a good qualifying session as both of its drivers will start far back tomorrow, but there is still hope as they will both have new tires for the race, which could allow them to climb up the ranks.
Kamui Kobayashi – 13th and 17th
The pace of the car was enough for me to qualify in Q2, I was convinced I could make it, and I think our race performance should be good. But in qualifying, I took a long time to warm up my tires, and in the end, I was unlucky. I had just started my final fast lap when Felipe (Massa) came out of the pits ahead of me. And even though he had enough time to do a lap afterwards, he didn’t leave me any room. I’m disappointed, but I will stay confident and positive to prepare for tomorrow’s race. At least I managed to keep new tires, and this track offers opportunities for overtaking.
Sergio Perez – 16th and 20th
« It was obviously a very bad qualifying session for me. After our performance this morning in free practice 3, we were hoping for a much better position. The problem is that we didn’t manage to get our tires working well. Knowing this, and given the penalty I received yesterday, we decided to use our already used set of soft tires in Q2, in order to keep an additional new set for the race. »
Monisha Kaltenborn – Head of the Sauber F1 Team
We are obviously all disappointed today with the result, especially since the practice sessions went well. Today, the whole team failed to extract the maximum potential from the car. The positive point, however, is that our two drivers have two sets of new soft tires at their disposal, which will put them in an attacking position tomorrow during the race.
