Sauber miss out on first point by one second
A strong performance by the Sauber F1 Team at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest was not rewarded. Adrian Sutil finished in 11th and missed out on a point by just 0.9 seconds, while Esteban Gutiérrez was running eighth, and thus in the fight for points, when a problem with the Energy Recovery System forced him to stop.
Esteban Gutiérrez, car #21, Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 01/Ferrari): “The race started well, as I could gain positions during the start. I was pushing as much as I could, trying to drive very precisely and consistently. I was able to gain some positions and everything was going in the right direction. During the safety car period I came in for the pit stop, everything was right on target. After the restart, I was fighting with Kimi (Raikkonen) and trying to keep him behind. The pace was good and I was also able to keep up with the drivers in front of me. It was an unfortunate ending, but there are a lot of positives we can take from the weekend.”
Adrian Sutil, car #99, Sauber C33-Ferrari (Chassis 02/Ferrari): "Finishing in P11 was very close to gaining one point. It was not an easy race, especially at the beginning with the difficult weather conditions and the two safety car periods. During the first safety car period we made our first pit stop. When I came to the box I had to wait as Esteban had not finished yet. I did loose some time, but I was fighting back. At the end I finished the race in 11th. In the corners I was faster than Jenson (Button), but I could not overtake him as he did not make any mistakes and drove away on the straights. However, it was a positive day as we came closer to the teams in front of us, and this is what counts.”
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “This was a good performance by the whole team that was unfortunately not rewarded. Esteban was driving strongly, and it’s really frustrating that we had a problem with the Energy Recovery System, which forced him to retire. Adrian also drove strongly, but unfortunately didn’t manage to gain the decisive position on track. The whole team delivered an impeccable performance under very difficult circumstances.”
Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “There were two deciding factors in this race for our team. First we lost Esteban due to a failure of the Energy Recovery System. He was running in eighth and could have finished the race in the points. The second key point was that we lost a position on the track, and this car slowed Adrian quite a bit towards the end of the race. During the first safety car period, we made the call to bring both cars in on the same lap, which was not easy to handle, but under the circumstances it was a correct decision. It was positive that we were able to race with quite a lot of competition, but it’s disappointing not to finish in the points.”
