Sunday: A point worth its weight in gold for Kobayashi and Sauber

Kamui Kobayashi – 10th

I’m delighted to have scored a point today. I went through a long dry spell without points, and it was important for me to put an end to it. I got off to a great start and managed to gain five positions on the first lap. In fact, the performance at the start and afterward was better than expected. I started on the medium tires because I was only 16th on the grid, and it’s a situation where you can have opportunities. But we knew it would be a difficult first stint, and the tire lifespan was uncertain. They quickly wore out after a few laps, and then I lost three places before pitting on lap five to switch to the soft tires. I think it was a good race for us.

Sergio Perez – 11th

I had greater expectations for the race today. It’s a shame what happened on the first lap. There was a line of cars in turn 7 and I couldn’t avoid the collision with Adrian Sutil’s car. I wasn’t sure about the damage, but then the team told me my front wing was broken and I had to come in on lap 2. We then decided to fit medium tires at the same time as the change of nose. In my third stint, with the softs, I was 10th for a long time, but then I struggled with the tires and during the last 12 laps I no longer had KERS.

Peter Sauber – Director of the Sauber F1 team

« Our two drivers showed a great competitive spirit today and they put in very good lap times throughout the race. It’s good to score a point today, but we didn’t achieve the maximum possible result. Sergio’s race was difficult after his very early stop for a front wing change, and for Kamui, the team didn’t handle his second stop very well. However, our race pace was encouraging today. »