Sauber drivers struggle with tyres
Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Pérez qualified 14th and 16th respectively for the European Grand Prix on the Valencia Urban Circuit. Both drivers had difficulties getting the tyres to work on a single qualifying lap. In the races this disadvantage has occasionally turned into an advantage. The Sauber F1 Team remains positive for tomorrow.
Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber C30-Ferrari (Chassis 01 / Ferrari 056):
3rd Practice: 14th / 1:39.848 min
Qualifying: 14th / 1:39.525 min (in Q2, soft)
“It is quite tricky. Generally our car improved and, again, I am very confident for the race. We have shown we are much better in race conditions. Again I had warm-up issues with the tyres, and once I find some grip the front tyres overheat. For the future we will try to find a solution for this, but for tomorrow I will be aiming for points as in the previous races.”
Sergio Pérez, Sauber C30-Ferrari (Chassis 02 / Ferrari 056)
3rd Practice: 12th / 1:39.778 min
Qualifying: 16th / 1:39.657 (in Q2, soft)
“Because the track temperatures were going up I expected to be a few tenths quicker, but it turned out not to be that easy. We did more laps in order to get the tyres to work, but this also has disadvantages. However, I think tomorrow it will be possible to get some points and this is my target.”
Peter Sauber; Team Principal:
“I’m happy we have Sergio back in the car. However, we have a difficult task in front of us for the race.”
James Key, Technical Director:
“It was a disappointing session today. We made up a bit of ground over night, and the drivers were generally happy with the car this morning, but we knew we needed to make another step in qualifying. Q1 looked okay, Sergio’s lap was pretty competitive, and we wanted to improve in Q2. But ultimately this didn’t happen. We were unable to extract the most out of the car. It’s a real shame, it’s not where we want to be, and now we have to focus on our race strategy to try and recover from a difficult qualifying.”
