No top 10 starting slots for Sauber at Abu Dhabi
The Sauber F1 Team was hoping for a little bit more out of Qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but neither driver made it into the Top Ten Qualifying. Sergio Pérez qualified 12th, while Kamui Kobayashi was 16th.
Sergio Pérez, Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 03/Ferrari 056):
Qualifying: 12th in Q2 (1:42.084 min / new soft tyres)
3rd practice: 12th (1:43.571 min / new soft tyres / 20 laps)
“My last lap was a good one and I think this is just about the maximum possible for us here. Q3 today wasn’t within reach, although yesterday I hoped it would be. I have confidence in our race pace and believe we will be able to score points tomorrow.”
Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber C31-Ferrari (Chassis 04/Ferrari 056):
Qualifying: 16th in Q2 (1:42.606 min / new soft tyres)
3rd practice: 16th (1:44.010 min / new soft tyres / 22 laps)
“I have been struggling with the balance of the car since we got here. We did a lot of changes and managed to improve it to a certain extent, but I still had problems with the front brakes locking. This was also the reason for the mistake on my final flying lap in Q2. I hit the brakes, the front wheels locked and that was it. I think in race conditions we should be better, but it won’t be easy to improve. The circuit allows for overtaking, but you also need to have the speed for it.”
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal:
“We know this is a challenging track for us and we have experienced issues throughout the weekend on our low fuel runs. This result is not a surprise for us, but at the same time we have seen our long run pace is good and now we have to make the most of it during the race.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering:
“Today was all about the field being so tight. All in all we had hoped to put at least one car in the top ten, but we didn’t make it. Apart from that I think there is still some work to do to have the best possible race tomorrow. It was kind of a normal day, everything went okay, but the performance was not totally satisfactory.“
