Esteban Gutierrez has said sorry to his Sauber team after crashing in the dying seconds of Q1 in Australia, leaving him as one of the six eliminated drivers. Torrential rain caused the suspension of qualifying after the first knockout session but that had come too late for Gutierrez who hit the wall on the exit of turn twelve.
The Mexican will start eighteenth as a result but isn’t feeling too downhearted ahead of the race having made progress with his own feeling in the car.
“Unfortunately I made a mistake and feel sorry for the whole team. I feel very comfortable with the car and this is something that is a step forward for me. Now, of course, I need to avoid this kind of mistake and try to make the most of my potential.”
Teammate Nico Hulkenberg will live to fight another day having comfortably made it through to Q2 which will start at midnight UK time. The German was happy with the performance of the C32 but doesn’t feel much could have been done about the weather conditions.
“We had an unusual qualifying session, which reminds me of the qualifying in Suzuka 2010 where the session was also postponed because of the rain. Usually Formula One works like clockwork, but you can’t influence the weather. The performance in general was good and now we have to focus on getting the best out of the situation tomorrow.”
