Sauber failed to see either car in to the top ten shootout at Abu Dhabi today. Sergio Perez will start twelfth, with Kamui Kobayashi due to start from a disappointing sixteenth. It was one of the rare occasions this year that neither Sauber driver will start from the top ten.
“My last lap was a good one and I think this is just about the maximum possible for us here. Q3 today wasn’t within reach, although yesterday I hoped it would be. I have confidence in our race pace and believe we will be able to score points tomorrow,” Perez, who has failed to score a point since Monza, said.
“I have been struggling with the balance of the car since we got here. We did a lot of changes and managed to improve it to a certain extent, but I still had problems with the front brakes locking. This was also the reason for the mistake on my final flying lap in Q2,” Kobayashi added.
“I hit the brakes, the front wheels locked and that was it. I think in race conditions we should be better, but it won’t be easy to improve. The circuit allows for overtaking, but you also need to have the speed for it.”
“We know this is a challenging track for us and we have experienced issues throughout the weekend on our low fuel runs. This result is not a surprise for us, but at the same time we have seen our long run pace is good and now we have to make the most of it during the race,” team boss Monisha Kaltenborn concluded.
