24/06/2011
NEWS STORY
The Sauber F1 Team is happy to be running with its original driver line-up, with Sergio Perez having fully recovered from his Monaco accident and joining Kamui Kobayashi again for the European Grand Prix on the Urban Circuit of Valencia. Both drivers had a busy Friday, with set up work on the Sauber C30-Ferrari and tyre evaluation. However, neither of the drivers is happy yet with the lap times, but both believe improvement is possible.
Sergio Perez: "More than anything I'm happy to be back in the car. Everything went okay, I feel well and I have done a lot of work over the last weeks to get there. I picked up speed quite quickly and this is good. Overall it looks as if we are a bit off the pace here. We have quite a lot of work to do tonight to improve the car. With regards to the tyres, I find it difficult to get the medium compound up to temperature. Here low grip is a general problem of the circuit. It is pretty dusty and, even with the soft tyres, it is difficult to find a proper grip level. We will sort out several things and I hope for a good qualifying."
Kamui Kobayashi: "For me today was difficult. In the morning I had a throttle pedal problem and therefore could not complete the scheduled programme. For the second free practice in the afternoon the car felt a bit better, and I was quite positive about putting in a good lap time. But unfortunately when I was on new soft tyres I flat spotted the right front straight away. The long runs later in the session have been okay. I think we will be better tomorrow than we look today."
James Key, Technical Director: "This morning we ran just a single set of tyres on both cars in slippery track conditions. It was mostly a session of aero and mechanical tests. Unfortunately Kamui had a throttle pedal problem on his car, which cost some track time. In the afternoon we ran our normal programme comparing the tyres, as well as additional set up work. In the end we did long runs to understand how the tyres will last. We have a little work to do to improve in the middle sector of the circuit. However, neither driver was able to put his best sector times together so, therefore, our lap times from today are not entirely representative of our performance."
To check out our Valencia practice gallery, click here.