Canadian GP: Qualifying notes - Sauber

09/06/2012

After promising results on Friday with much lower ambient temperatures, on Saturday it was a lot hotter in Montreal and neither of the Sauber F1 Team drivers made it into Q3. Kamui Kobayashi missed the top ten qualifying by 0.008 seconds and qualified 11th for the Canadian Grand Prix. Sergio Perez flat spotted his tyres and then couldn't do any better than 15th in Q2.

Kamui Kobayashi: "It was very tight today, I missed Q3 by 0.008 seconds. Nevertheless I think on Friday in free practice, when it was cooler, we looked more competitive than today. The car's balance was good yesterday and we didn't change it. Also my fastest lap was fine, and there were no mistakes. I think this was pretty much what I could achieve today. Apparently the others improved in comparison to us. For the race I think to me the tyres look quite stable, so that is not a worry. High temperatures are predicted for Sunday and overtaking is possible here on the long straight with DRS, so I think we can look forward to an exciting Canadian Grand Prix."

Sergio Perez: "Having qualified only 15th is a big disappointment for me, as certainly a place in the top ten would have been possible. Unfortunately on the first lap of my last run with new super soft tyres I flat spotted them when braking into turn 8. The car was then vibrating a lot, which meant I could hardly see the braking points. It is obviously a difficult position to start from, but it is still my target to score points tomorrow."

Peter Sauber, Team Principal: "On the one hand I'm disappointed because we couldn't make it into the top ten qualifying, but on the other it's incredible to see how close the competition is. In Q2 Kamui was in P11 and just half a second away from Sebastian Vettel who was quickest. Both our drivers have proved in the past they can overtake, so we are looking forward to an exciting race."

Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "What we saw today was that the characteristics of this track with its special aerodynamic requirements reshuffled the order a bit, but what we keep seeing repeated is that the pack is ultimately very close. For us we are unfortunately on the wrong side of the tenths, however, P11 for Kamui is still quite a good grid position. Sergio flat spotted the tyres and therefore couldn't get the maximum out of his car. But he proved in Monaco, where he started from the last row, that he can fight his way up the field. Because of this we still have good reasons to be positive for the race."

Check out our Qualifying gallery, here.