Sauber expected more from Monaco qualifying
While Sauber F1 Team driver Kamui Kobayashi was just missing out on making it into the top ten qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix by finishing 12th in Q2, Sergio Pérez was already on his way to hospital.
The precautionary check is obligatory and the Mexican was able to leave the hospital straight away with a clean bill of health. He had hit an Armco barrier on his first lap in Q1. Kamui had been a promising second in Q1, using a fresh set of super soft tyres. In Q2 he improved his lap time by one and a half tenths with another set of fresh super softs, but still it wasn’t good enough for Q3.
Kamui Kobayashi:
Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 03/Ferrari 056)
Qualifying: 12th (1:15.508 min in Q2 / new super soft tyres)
3rd Practice: 13th (1.16.311 min / soft tyres / 19 laps)
“Of course I had hoped for a better result today. With the super soft tyre compound you only have one lap to set a good time. I managed to improve in Q2, but unfortunately not enough to be able to start in Q3. Nevertheless, the car was good and it will be good in the race, so I think we can improve tomorrow. A lot will also depend on our race strategy and some luck in terms of safety car periods, which can always happen here. I’m positive we can score good points tomorrow.”
Sergio Pérez:
Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 04/Ferrari 056)
Qualifying: No time / accident in Q1
3rd Practice: 9th (1.16.110 min / soft tyres / 14 laps)
“I am disappointed as I felt we could fight for a very good grid position here. We are still analysing everything to see if there was something wrong with the car. I was on my first lap, so was not pushing a lot. I went into the tunnel and had a lot of understeer and then I went into turns 13 and 14. Thirteen was quite fine but in 14 I just went straight and didn’t get the car to turn.”
Peter Sauber, Team Principal: “I am disappointed and I expected a much better result.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “The car is definitely quicker than we showed today. We are very disappointed and we don’t know what happened to Sergio. We are looking right now to see if there was a problem with the car. Then with Kamui, it was not a very good lap in Q2. The field is so tight here and our grid positions make things a lot more difficult for tomorrow, but we are in Monaco where anything can happen and we don’t have to give up.”
