Sauber F1 Team have struggled during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix with their result reflecting the work they desperately need to do in order to catch up to the head of the Formula One circus.
With starts of 17th and 18th for Esteban Gutierrez and Adrian Sutil respectively the team will have to have their thinking caps on tonight to see if they can play the strategy to try and get themselves up into a potential points finish.
Gutierrez said after Q1, where he fell tantalisingly short of Q2 with a time of 1:18.741: “It was not a positive qualifying for the team, so we cannot be happy with today’s outcome. We are on the edge of getting into Q2, so every minor incident on track is affecting us massively. Today it was a big challenge to find a clean lap. Bringing the tyres up to temperature took a few laps, which was not ideal either. We need to analyse the data and see what exactly happened. Regarding the race, we all know that it is hard to overtake in Monaco. However, a good start can bring us closer to the front. During the race we have to take any chances that we get.”
Sutil, who was fourth thousandths of a second behind his team mate, rued yellow flags for spooling his flying laps: “It was a disappointing qualifying. The first run was quite good. We just had bad luck with the two yellow flags at the end of the first qualifying session. It is a shame, but that can happen in Monaco. We were not able to show what could have been possible. We now have to look forward. The race is long and everything can happen. I am looking forward and I hope to get the most out of the car.”
