Pérez 14th, Kobayashi retires one lap from end
The Hungarian Grand Prix didn’t really see the best performance from the Sauber F1 Team – after a bad qualifying it turned out to be impossible to recover in the race. Sergio Pérez started 14th on the grid and finished 14th in the race. His team mate, Kamui Kobayashi, was 15th on the grid and stayed 15th until the penultimate lap, when he had to retire due to an hydraulic leak.
The Sauber F1 Team has scored 80 points in the first half of the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship and remains a strong sixth in the constructors’ standings after 11 of the 20 races. In the drivers’ championship both are in the top ten as the teams go into the summer break, with Sergio ninth (47 points) and Kamui tenth (33 points).
Sergio Pérez, 14th, Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 02/Ferrari 056):
Start on soft tyres, after 21 and 47 laps change to new medium tyres.
“I’m afraid there isn’t much to say today. We were just lacking the pace. We tried to stretch my first stint for a different strategy, but in the end I think there was just nothing that could get us into the points today. It is a shame, but we will fight back after the summer break.”
Kamui Kobayashi, 18th, DNF (stopped one lap from the end), Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 01/Ferrari 056):
Start on soft tyres, after 8 laps change to new medium tyres, after 40 laps change to soft tyres.
“We have simply been too slow here. We have been struggling all weekend, especially with the medium tyre compound. I also lost a few positions right after the start when I found myself on the extreme left side of the track with nowhere to go anymore. Finally I got the call to come in because of an hydraulic leak and that was it. For some reason the Hungaroring didn’t work for us.”
Monisha Kaltenborn, CEO:
“Looking at our grid positions, we achieved what we could today. Both our drivers did a good job, but overtaking on this track is extremely difficult as we saw from the experiences of the other drivers. We paid the price for a weak qualifying and have to work on improving this.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering:
“In the end we finished as high as we could this weekend. It’s difficult to judge our race performance because our drivers were stuck in traffic for quite some time. Kamui lost some positions at the start, which made things difficult for him. We pitted him earlier than planned to get him out of traffic, and this helped a bit. However, halfway through the race we discovered there was a small hydraulic leak which became worse and worse, and we decided to call him in one lap before the end of the race. Checo gained a position at the start, but we were still outside the points. Therefore we decided to take a risk and extend his first stint, looking into the possibility of making just one stop. But the tyres didn’t last long enough, so in hindsight it didn’t pay off. We also delayed the second stop, which helped Checo to catch up some of the other drivers, but in the end we have to accept overall this weekend we were not fast enough. We have to react to this.”
