30/07/2011
NEWS STORY
For the fifth time this season a Sauber F1 Team driver has made it into the top ten qualifying. Sergio Perez qualified tenth for tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix, Kamui Kobayashi came 13th in Budapest. Both are in strong positions to fight for points in what will be an exciting race at the winding Hungaroring.
Sergio Perez: "I am very happy. It is the second time that I have made it into Q3 and the first time I can celebrate it. My fastest lap in Q2 was a really good one, I think we achieved the maximum possible today. The team handled the conditions very well, and the strategy was really good. But all what matters is tomorrow. Our race pace should be good, and I hope I can improve and score some good points."
Kamui Kobayashi: "After we had struggled quite a lot in the free practice this morning, it was much better in qualifying. It was not easy, as we changed the set-up but the conditions also changed. My final lap in Q2 was okay, but I missed to get into Q3. Of course the target for tomorrow is to score points. I have the feeling that the life of both tyre compounds is rather short, so this will make it an exciting Grand Prix here."
Peter Sauber, Team Principal: "It's the first time in his Formula One career that Sergio can start from the top ten, which is always something special. Congratulation to him for a fantastic performance and also to his race engineer. I'm sure it was the right thing to do to save one set of new super soft tyres for the race. P13 is maybe a little bit less than what Kamui had hoped for, but he is in a very good position to attack tomorrow and fight for points."
James Key, Technical Director: "I'm very pleased with Sergio's performance in qualifying. We knew from this morning that it was likely to be extremely close, so it was great to get through to Q3. We decided not to do a flying lap in that session. Although possibly we could have made a bit of progress, I think tyre saving will be extremely important tomorrow. We took a strategic decision not to do a timed lap, although he left the pits we decided to bring him in. Unfortunately Kamui couldn't make it to Q3, but it was only a matter of tenths. We will look at all possibilities and try to come up with a sensible race strategy and aim for a good points finish tomorrow."
To check out our Hungary qualifying gallery, click here.