Strong race by Sauber drivers delivers 20 points
The Sauber F1 Team was very happy to score 20 World Championship points at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim. This is the same number the Swiss outfit scored in Malaysia. Kamui Kobayashi was classified 4th after starting from 12th. Sergio Pérez, 17th on the grid, recovered from a bad qualifying and a grid penalty to finish sixth.
Kamui Kobayashi, 4th (finished 5th but moves up due to penalty for Vettel), Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 01/Ferrari 056):
Start on medium tyres, after 22 laps change to medium tyres, after 43 laps change to soft tyres.
“I am very happy for the team that we have managed to get a good result again. We have been unlucky in the two most recent races, and also had a bad qualifying yesterday. The performance of our car, especially in the dry, is really strong. If we only had qualified better we could have achieved even more today. At the beginning of the race it was a bit difficult on the medium tyres, but our strategy was good. Considering where we came from, 18 points is an excellent result.”
Sergio Pérez, 6th, Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 02/Ferrari 056):
Start on soft tyres, after 17 laps change to medium tyres and after 40 laps change to medium tyres.
“I am so pleased for all of us that we have recovered after we had such a bad qualifying. We have shown a strong pace in the race. However, my strategy was a little bit compromised because I had to do my first pit stop a bit earlier than planned. I felt something strange on the left hand side of the car - perhaps it was a puncture - but I don’t’ really know yet what it was. This obviously meant we had to extend the later stint and I ended up with quite old tyres. The team did a great job today and this will give us a good boost for next week’s race in Budapest.”
Peter Sauber, Team Principal:
“We started from P12 and P17 and finished fifth and sixth. I think it’s fair to say this performance was outstanding, and it was rewarded by 18 championship points. Congratulations to the drivers who both did an excellent job, and thank you to the whole team.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering:
“Considering where we started, I think we can say this was an excellent race from the team. On the driver side and the team side everything worked as it should. Possibly we were paid back in the race for the trouble we had yesterday in qualifying. Our approach yesterday was more biased towards dry conditions. The drivers were on different strategies, because we wanted to cover every possibility in the race. In the end both strategies worked out fine. I think today’s race proved our car is very, very quick.”
