24/09/2011
NEWS STORY
Qualifying didn't go according to plan for the Sauber F1 Team as, while Sergio Perez just missed out on advancing into Q3 and was 11th, Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber C30-Ferrari literally flew over the kerbs in the chicane in turn 10, and ended up in the wall. This meant the Japanese driver has only qualified 17th for the night race round the streets of Singapore.
Sergio Perez: "Overall I am pleased with our qualifying performance today, although it is a shame not to have made it into Q3, as it was very close. My lap in Q2 wasn't really perfect, the one in Q1 was actually better, as I felt more traction then. Nevertheless I'm very confident for tomorrow, as we normally have a strong race pace. The circuit is very technical and a driver can easily make a mistake, or with a good performance make a difference. I strongly believe I will finish in the points tomorrow."
Kamui Kobayashi: "I ended up in the wall in Q2 and the accident was my fault. I feel very sorry for the team. I took too much kerb in turn 10, the car jumped too high and this was the outcome. I saw a chance to fight for Q3, but it didn't work out. I was taken to the medical centre and was quite surprised at how carefully they checked me. However, physically I'm absolutely fine. I will do my utmost tomorrow to fight for points and give something back to the team."
Peter Sauber, Team Principal: "Our car has got faster, so this is positive. Being a rookie, Sergio is driving here for the first time and has put in a very strong performance. Unfortunately it just wasn't enough to make it to Q3. Kamui's performance was good enough to make it into the top ten, but he failed to take his chance when he was riding the kerbs too much and the car left the ground."
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "Performance wise we are fairly happy, as we are where we expected to be. With a bit more luck maybe we would have got a top ten position, but still Sergio can do a good race from there. For Kamui that was unfortunate. Luckily he didn't hit concrete, but the angle he went in was not nice. However, now we need to look at the car and hope the chassis is not broken."
Check out our Singapore qualifying gallery, here.