Sauber had only one car in the race after Sergio Perez was hospitalised on Saturday.
| Kamui Kobayashi | Sergio Perez | |
| Qualifying position | 13 | 10 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q2) | 1’15.973 (+0.491) | 1’15.482 |
| Race position | 5 | |
| Laps | 78/78 | 0/78 |
| Pit stops | 2 |
Sauber drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | |
| Kamui Kobayashi | 96.472 | 83.874 | 82.856 | 82.614 | 82.222 | 81.838 | 81.833 | 81.661 | 81.282 | 82.011 | 81.852 | 81.981 | 81.944 | 81.631 | 82.044 | 81.952 | 81.492 | 81.324 | 81.565 | 81.953 | 81.934 | 81.443 | 81.172 | 81.614 | 82.467 | 81.611 | 81.776 | 81.898 | 81.975 | 82.363 | 82.077 | 83.135 | 82.172 | 119.4 | 105.72 | 88.464 | 91.893 | 114.166 | 84.694 | 83.246 | 82.923 | 81.764 | 81.379 | 81.562 | 81.182 | 81.212 | 81.386 | 81.196 | 80.962 | 80.549 | 80.468 | 80.819 | 80.449 | 80.586 | 80.341 | 80.461 | 80.28 | 80.347 | 80.331 | 80.943 | 81.578 | 81.236 | 81.421 | 82.623 | 80.971 | 80.451 | 80.46 | 79.913 | 104.927 | 102.204 | 95.242 | 121.284 | 84.769 | 80.959 | 78.308 | 80.818 | 78.96 |
Kamui Kobayashi
Starting on soft tyres and running long on his first stint worked perfectly as Kobayashi was able to pit when the safety car came out for the first time, leaving him in fifth place.
He tried to pass Adrian Sutil for fourth on lap 64, knocked the Force India wide and took the place, for which the stewards later gave him a reprimand.
On the penultimate lap he cut the chicane while Mark Webber tried to pass, and yielded the position immediately as they ran towards Tabac.
Even so fifth place, with Hamilton on his tail, was the best result of his career so far.
Kamui Kobayashi 2011 form guide
Sergio Perez
Up until his accident, Perez had beaten his team mate for the fourth time out of six in qualifying and reached Q3 for the first time.
But on his first flying lap on super-soft tyres in the final session he crashed heavily at the chicane, suffering concussion which kept him out of the race.
He was released from hospital two days later with no broken bones.
2011 Monaco Grand Prix
Image © Sauber F1 Team
slr
30th May 2011, 15:02
I hope to see Perez in Canada, I feel with the way the race turned out, he could have helped Sauber score a big haul of points.
As for Kobayashi, it’s great to see that he can’t stop scoring points. Though I think a penalty should have been handed to him for his overtake on Sutil which looked illegal to me, though a 20 second penalty wouldn’t have done anything to his result.
Sauber is possibly my favourite team at the moment, they definately have the most exciting driver line up in my opinion.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
31st May 2011, 18:55
Sauber is possibly my favourite team at the moment, they definately have the most exciting driver line up in my opinion.
Couldn’t agree more! They’re an absolute delight to watch.
Faraz (@faraz)
30th May 2011, 15:03
Anyway great drive by Kamui. I think if either Ferrari or Mercedes are looking for a new driver then they should consider him, quick and consistent.
Fixy (@)
30th May 2011, 16:05
I was always reluctant of associating Kamui with a top team, but he has shown that he can, helped by his aggressiveness, achieve quite incredible results.
BasCB (@bascb)
30th May 2011, 20:03
He does. Nice racer, good overtaker, but knows how to get it to the finish as well. And a funny bloke.
Hope he does get a top driver and becomes at least a multiple race winner.
Ral (@)
30th May 2011, 15:10
I’m still wondering about that reprimand. Just looking at the whole overtake, it seems like Kobayashi starts the move a bit too late and it’s all his fault.
But in the end, both Kobayashi and Sutil got reprimanded, so I think something must have happened before the move itself took place? Or perhaps Sutil made two moves to defend? I’ve also not heard of any objections from Sutil, so perhaps he accepts that he was at least partially responsible as well.
Awesome result in all. And with Hamilton’s impending punishment at the end of the race, Kobayashi was always going to be safe in 5th regardless of what happened to him in his own enquiry.
With this, Kobayashi’s already up to 19 points now after only 5 races, compared to 32 at the end of last season. He is also ahead of Schumacher in the Mercedes no less, and single-handedly outscoring the next team in the constructors championship by a fair margin. He is doing his ratings on the driver’s market a world of good this season.
TFLB
30th May 2011, 15:26
He’s also only a handful of points behind the ‘works’ Ferrari of Massa.
Xanathos
30th May 2011, 15:27
And considering how unlucky he was in Turkey and Spain, he could have a lot more points by now. If the team hadn’t been disqualified in Australia, Sauber might even be ahead of Mercedes in the constructor’s championship…
Journeyer (@journeyer)
30th May 2011, 17:37
They’d be 9 points behind instead of 19. Not quite there yet, but as a Mercedes fan, I’m relieved they’re a bit farther back in points given Sauber’s pace and overall reliability.
BasCB (@bascb)
30th May 2011, 20:07
I must say I did think the FIA was starting to throw penalties around big time. Too much.
I think the penalties for Hamilton and possibly for Di Resta could have been reprimands, not drive throughs. Di Resta mainly ruined his own race with the move, having to come in early for a new nose.
Guess its got a lot to do with the Drivers having asked the FIA to be carefull with safety here.
And maybe part of the anger towards Hamilton (both Massa and partly Maldonado) for him liking to drive dangerous, could have had to do with Hamilton reportedly being one of the few drivers against banning DRS use in the tunnel (with Schu and 1-2 others)
HxCas (@hxcas)
30th May 2011, 22:29
I do seem to remember Petrov saying Sutil was defending far too aggressively at some point, maybe the reprimand was for that
electrolite (@electrolite)
31st May 2011, 16:55
A lot of the races Kobayashi didn’t finish in the first half of last year were down to the C29’s initial unreliability rather than his performance though, it has to be said…
butterdori (@butterdori)
30th May 2011, 15:28
Kobayashi was very impressive. I hope both of them move on to bigger teams next year.
gwenouille (@gwenouille)
30th May 2011, 17:15
One problem with Kobayashi is pure pace: he is a racer, but he struggles in quali. He really has to work on this side and he’ll be ready for a podium harvest !
US_Peter (@us_peter)
30th May 2011, 20:15
When Kobayashi was running 4th I was hoping for Button to try an overoptimistic pass on Alonso that would’ve taken out the top three or at least sent them all into the pits for new wings, tires, etc., allowing Kobayashi to hang on for the win! Something would’ve had to to stall Webber as well for that to have worked, but it seemed like a good dream anyhow.
BasCB (@bascb)
30th May 2011, 20:21
Funny you say that. I was watching at my brother’s and we were talking about what might happen and all of a sudden we both came up with exactly the same having Kobayashi win the race from Webber and Sutil!
That would have been almost up there with the likes of Panis winning it!
ajokay
30th May 2011, 20:34
Almost up there? It would have been way better than Panis winning!!
BasCB (@bascb)
31st May 2011, 7:06
Yeah, but that race was crazy for having only 4 finishers.
bosyber (@bosyber)
30th May 2011, 21:24
It would have been awesome, in a very Monaco way.
Ky76
31st May 2011, 1:12
Kob is really unique racer who I don’t know similar one. He is not super first at qualify while is really good at race day and his overtaking skil is one of the best in this decade.
Also he is consistent. In 2011 he bring back his sauber to home 100% in top 10.
I’m wondering how you guys describe him.
I wish Sauber would be strong enough to fight with big names or he would move to big name.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
31st May 2011, 2:45
Good drive for Kobayashi, nice to hear that Perez is good & will race in Canada.
Electrolite
31st May 2011, 12:15
Sauber for 6th place this year!
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
31st May 2011, 18:58
My heart stopped when I saw Kobayashi cut the chicane but by the time I thought much of it he had already yielded. Smart move.
Kobayashi did his team and fellow driver proud.
Looking forward to seeing Sergio out in Canada and scoring points