Sauber disappointed after disheartening result

Heading into the Chinese Grand Prix, Sauber looked set for another competitive race as Kamui Kobayashi lined up 3rd on the grid, his best qualifying position to date. However, once the lights went out Sauber’s day went downhill as Kobayashi suffered a slow getaway on the grid and Perez suffered with the medium Pirelli tyre.

On the back of Sergio Perez’s superlative drive at the Malaysian Grand Prix, where the Mexican piled immense amounts of pressure of Fernando Alonso and subsequently finished 2nd, China couldn’t have been more of a different story.

As the checkered flag fell, Sauber found themselves with only one World Championship point, with the likes of the Williams’ ahead of them after a frustrating and disheartening race.

“Of course after what we did in qualifying the race result is disappointing.” Commented Kamui Kobayashi, “I’m not really sure what happened at the start, my car just didn’t move, it was a bit strange and I lost positions immediately. Then I was stuck in traffic for most of the time, also we made the second pit stop a bit late and the tyres had gone.”

Sergio Perez, who only managed to qualify for the race in 8th, suffered greatly when he switched to the medium tyre compound after 16 laps. Prior to the Mexican’s pit stop he was locked in a feisty battle with Lewis Hamilton, yet when he finally pitted his performance took an unfortunate nose-dive.

“I must say I am very disappointed.” Said Sergio Perez, “I had a very good start, and for the entire first stint it really looked to be going very well for me. But then when I picked up the medium compound tyres I lost a lot of performance from lap 17 onwards. Actually I feel I would have been better off with a three stop strategy, but you never know.”

After an outstanding result in Malaysia, the Chinese Grand Prix has been a harsh return to normality for the Hinwil based outfit. They will be hoping Bahrain is a different story next weekend.

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