30/10/2011
NEWS STORY
After starting 20th on the grid Sergio Perez managed to finish tenth at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix and scored one point for the Sauber F1 Team. While for Perez a brave tyre strategy paid off - he used the hard compound only for the very first race lap - his team mate, Kamui Kobayashi, was left empty handed. He was involved in an accident and retired right after the start.
Sergio Perez: "I'm very happy to have scored that point today. At least this way I can pay back something to the team after I made that mistake on Friday, for which I received the grid penalty of three places. We had a very good strategy today. It was a risky one as well, but it paid off, the team did a good job on that. I used the hard tyre only for the first lap. After that stop I was then stuck in traffic. Actually I expected the safety car to come out because in the first sector there was a lot of oil on the track. However, after I had passed Paul di Resta I was able to push. The first set of soft tyres was good. With the second I struggled a bit to warm them up, Adrian Sutil was really fast, and I couldn't catch him. Overall I think in qualifying we clearly didn't exploit the potential of the car, and we all know that we have to improve."
Kamui Kobayashi: "Unfortunately today my race is a very disappointing and short story. After the start I was hit from behind and immediately I saw smoke and fire coming from my car. Obviously there was severe damage, so I had to stop and switch the car off."
Monisha Kaltenborn, Chief Executive: "We are very happy with the point we scored today, particularly considering from where we started. Sergio drove an excellent race and showed a lot of fighting spirit. I'm sorry for Kamui as his race ended in the first corner. We proved today that we can fight, and this is exactly how we will approach the last two races. Congratulations to the organiser for setting up this great event and thanks to the Indian fans for their warm welcome."
Giampaolo Dall'Ara, Head of Track Engineering: "It was a pity for Kamui who was involved in an incident in corner one. This damaged his radiator, and he lost all the oil and had to stop immediately. For Sergio we went for an unusual strategy. He started on the hard tyre and pitted after lap one. He drove a strong race and made up one place after the other. It was the right decision yesterday not to use new soft tyres in Q2, so he had two fresh sets today and could attack all the way along. After a bad day yesterday we fought back today. That's good for the morale in the whole team."
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