Sauber hoping to fight for points despite barely missing Q3
After promising runs in the first part of qualifying as well as early in the second part of the session, in the end neither of the team’s drivers made it into the top ten qualifying. Kamui Kobayashi qualified 12th for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix in Hockenheim, while Pedro de la Rosa was 15th.
Kamui Kobayashi: C29.02 / Ferrari 056 Qualifying: 12th / 1.15.084 min (in Q2) / 3rd Practice: 11th / 1:16.882 min (19 laps) “I am not happy because I should have gone through into Q3. The car was good and the performance in qualifying confirmed this. But on my second run in Q2 I had traffic and needed to slow down a bit. Obviously this wasn’t good for the tyre temperatures and I had a lack of grip afterwards. However, from 12th on the grid I should still be able to score points tomorrow.“
Pedro de la Rosa: C29.04 / Ferrari 056 Qualifying: 15th / 1.15.550 min (in Q2) / 3rd Practice: 15th / 1:17.220 min (19 laps) “I was certainly hoping to make it into Q3. Overall I think we have been closer to the top ten than expected. The car was good and it will be the same in the race tomorrow. On my second run in Q2 I pushed too hard and had a couple of big moments. This way I obviously couldn’t improve my lap time.“
Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “The positive aspect of today is the fact our car made another step forward with regard to performance, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to compete at such a level. However, it’s disappointing we didn’t make it into Q3.”
James Key, Technical Director: “We came in this morning after working over night on the cars to address some of the issues we found in dry conditions yesterday. Both drivers were happy with the cars this morning, and we looked reasonably competitive. We went to qualifying knowing we had a realistic chance of a getting into Q3. There was a big accident in the first session, and it was good to see Vitantonio Liuzzi walk away from that. Then it was about concentrating on getting the tyres to work. The first outings were reasonable. Kamui was in the top ten straightaway, but unfortunately we couldn’t get the most out of the new tyres on the second run, where we didn’t improve at all. That left us just outside the top ten. Ultimately it was disappointing, but I’m pleased the car has taken a step forward. We should be able to fight for points tomorrow.”
