Sauber Abu Dhabi GP race report

Both Sauber F1 Team drivers drove strong races at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for which, in the end, one point was the reward. Kamui Kobayashi, who started 16th, came tenth at the penultimate round of the 2011 FIA World Championship, and today this was enough to defend the team’s seventh position in the constructors’ ranking. Sergio Pérez, who had qualified 11th, could not get the most out of his grid position because of a first lap incident, which forced him to pit early. By coming 11th in the twilight race Pérez just missed scoring.

Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber F1 Team

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Kamui Kobayashi: 10th - Sauber C30-Ferrari (Chassis 01 / Ferrari 056)

Start on soft tyres, after 5 and 33 laps change to soft tyres

“I am happy to having scored a point today, I have had a pretty long period without scoring and for me it was important to put an end to this. I had a really good start and was able to make up five positions on lap one. Actually the performance of the tyres during and after the start was better than expected. I started on the medium compound as I was only 16th on the grid, and this is obviously a situation in which you have to take chances. But we knew it would be a difficult first stint, and it was not really clear how long those tyres would last. They dropped off after a few laps and then I lost three positions before I pitted after lap five for soft tyres. I think overall it was a good race by us.”

Sergio Perez, Sauber F1 Team

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Sergio Pérez: 11th - Sauber C30-Ferrari (Chassis 03 / Ferrari 056)

Start on soft tyres, after 2 laps change to medium tyres, after 27 laps change to soft tyres

“I had higher hopes for the race today. It is a shame what happened on lap one. There was a queue into turn seven and I couldn’t avoid hitting Adrian Sutil’s car. It wasn’t immediately clear how big the damage was, but then the team told me my front wing was broken and I had to pit after lap two. We then decided to go for the medium compound when we did the nose change. On my third stint, again on soft tyres, I was driving in tenth for a while, but then I struggled with the tyres and also for the last 12 laps my KERS wasn’t working.”

Peter Sauber, Team Principal:

“Both drivers showed a lot of fighting spirit and set very good lap times for most of the race. It was good to score a point today, but we didn’t achieve the maximum we could. Sergio’s race was hampered by his early pit stop to replace the front wing, and for Kamui the team didn’t handle his second stop perfectly. However, our race pace was encouraging today.”

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering:

“The early part of the race wasn’t easy for us because Sergio made contact with a Force India and had to pit after two laps because the pylon at the front wing was broken. As a result of the early stop we had to change the strategy. Our plan was to do two stints on soft tyres and the final one on medium, but under the circumstances we fitted the medium at the first pit stop. This worked okay. Sergio was able to get back in the points, but he then suffered a KERS problem and let Kamui by. With Kamui we were a bit too optimistic at the beginning of the race. He was on the medium compound. Once we realised that he was struggling to find grip we decided on an earlier stop than we had planned. This was good tyre-wise, but put him in a lot of traffic. However, he drove a good race, overtaking aggressively, and he finally scored a well deserved point, which is good for the morale of the whole team.”