No surprises for Sauber on qualifying for tomorrow's Abu Dhabi GP

Qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the Yas Marina Circuit held no surprises. After having no issues, Adrian Sutil and Esteban Gutiérrez have to be satisfied with 15th and 17th. It was not unexpected that there would be limited possibilities on a track with some long straights. As was the case today in qualifying, tomorrow’s race will start in daylight and will finish in the dark.

Esteban Gutiérrez (Qualifying: 17th in Q1, 1:42.819 min): “It was pretty tight. I tried my best to get the maximum out of the car. My last lap was a good one, but I missed half a tenth that would let me reach Q2. It is not very satisfying, but at the same time we need to focus on tomorrow’s race and try to get the best out of it.”

Adrian Sutil (Qualifying: 15th in Q2,  1:43.074 min): “That was a solid qualifying. We continuously made progress during the whole weekend, although it was not easy as I missed the first free practice session, and, therefore, did not run many laps on this circuit. Session by session the feeling in the car got better after testing different set-ups. The car had a good balance during the first qualifying session, so my crucial lap went well. After that the track temperatures went down and the driveability of the car was different in Q2. It was difficult to have the ideal conditions. In general I am satisfied with qualifying. The team did a good job, and we hope for a positive race tomorrow.”

Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: “Even before the event it was clear that this race weekend would not be an easy one for us. This track clearly shows the deficiencies of our overall package. However, this doesn’t mean that we are giving up for the race. Some of our competitors are within reach, so our goal must be to deliver the best possible result.“

Giampaolo Dall’Ara, Head of Track Engineering: “Technically it was a trouble free day. However, on the performance side we were expecting to have a tough weekend. In the end nothing went really wrong in qualifying, but we just got the result we could expect on a track like this. The race will not be easy, but we will do everything to get the maximum out of the car.“

Sauber F1 Team