Sauber continue to endure a difficult weekend at the Nürburgring with Sergio Perez qualifying fifteenth for the German Grand Prix and Kamui Kobayashi failing to get out of Q1.
The Japanese driver will start tomorrow’s race from P18 and was left bemoaning the lack of pace his car as around the Nürburgring this weekend. “Of course it is disappointing to be out in Q1,” he said. “It was a difficult qualifying in what has turned out to be a difficult weekend for us so far.
“My fastest lap wasn't perfect. I had some traffic in front and behind, but it is also the case that we have a general lack of pace here. The only positive thing is that I have now two fresh sets of the soft tyres left for the race. I will do my very best to recover from where I have to start.”
Perez said that he could not have done much better in this afternoon’s qualifying session, but says that he will try hard to fight for points come race day.
“Obviously our overall performance isn't good here and I think we almost maximized what was possible in qualifying under the circumstances,” said the Mexican. “We struggle quite a lot here at the Nürburgring. My fastest lap was okay; there is nothing to complain about. I locked a wheel once but this wasn't the main problem. Perhaps the lap time could have been better by one or two tenths but for sure no more. However, this is where we are and will do everything to fight for points tomorrow.”
Sauber technical director James Key gave a blunt evaluation of the session: “This was a bad qualifying really. After the free practice sessions we knew that Q3 would be tough, but still we should have been better than where we ended up.
“Unfortunately Kamui had traffic on his Q1 laps. He was not in a position that would have allowed him to progress his lap time so unfortunately he ended up dropping out. Sergio was fine in the beginning. It was a shame because his first lap on new tyres in Q2 looked like a good improvement, but he had a problem in the third sector which ruined his lap. So he qualified a little lower than we would have hoped.
“This was a poor qualifying session and we have to think carefully about our approach to the race to make the best of it.”
