09/10/2016
NEWS STORY
The Sauber F1 Team finished the Japanese Grand Prix in P15 (Marcus Ericsson) and P19 (Felipe Nasr). Both drivers completed the race distance of 53 laps on a one-stop strategy. It was the second race of the 2016 Formula One season, after the Chinese Grand Prix, without any retirements. After a short stopover in Switzerland, the team will head to the next and final back-to-back race weekend this season in Austin and Mexico City.
Marcus Ericsson: "For me it was a decent race. My start was not too bad, and I gained one position moving up to P17. My first stint on the medium tyres was also ok, as I was hanging on to Jolyon (Palmer) ahead of me. Overall, I believe we chose the right strategy. Finishing in P15 is a better result compared to my starting position (P18). We still need to find more pace to fight for points."
Felipe Nasr: "A disappointing race after an overall difficult weekend. The first stint on hard tyres was ok. I braked a bit too late into Turn 11, which caused me to flat spot the tyres. That forced me to pit a bit earlier than originally planned. When I then came in for the pit stop, I lost some time when pulling out as the clutch did not seem ready to disengage. The gap to the group ahead increased, as some blue flags also compromised my race pace."
Monisha Kaltenborn, Team Principal: "Our starting positions led into a difficult race. Therefore, it was important to choose strategies which were different to those of the other competitors. In order to make a one-stop strategy work, it was mainly up to the drivers. In that sense, Marcus put in a flawless performance and was able to keep some of our direct competitors behind him. On hard tyres, Felipe was able to remain in his position after the race start. Later on he had to box a bit earlier than planned after braking too late and flat spotting his tyres."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Suzuka, here.