Sergio Perez, Nick Heidfeld, Silverstone, 2011

Sauber: Perez claims best-ever result

2011 British GP team review

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Mixed fortunes for the Sauber drivers as Perez takes seventh but Kobayashi endures a race to forget.

Kamui Kobayashi Sergio Perez
Qualifying position 8 12
Qualifying time comparison (Q2) 1’32.399 (-0.225) 1’32.624
Race position 7
Laps 23/52 52/52
Pit stops 2 2

Sauber drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

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
Kamui Kobayashi 121.207 115.097 113.761 113.531 113.374 113.312 112.885 113.182 121.055 112.044 108.355 136.722 108.83 105.54 104.153 103.824 103.042 102.677 105.298 98.113 127.383 101.233 100.703
Sergio Perez 126.739 114.929 113.907 114.911 115.201 113.731 113.139 112.942 113.098 112.726 112.332 108.813 127.051 104.907 103.922 102.653 101.838 101.662 101.048 100.976 99.958 100.129 101.085 99.862 99.751 100.031 99.659 99.386 98.288 98.139 97.987 97.02 115.481 96.943 96.656 97.589 97.102 97.674 97.352 97.081 97.437 97.202 97.615 97.516 98.129 98.048 98.107 98.994 98.313 100.671 100.123 100.933

Kamui Kobayashi

Smashed his car up badly in first practice – “I lost control on the wet astro turf” – but his mechanics had the car fixed in time for second practice.

Always dramatic when the track was slippery, Kobayashi reached Q3 for the third time the year an lined up eighth on the grid.

He held his position at the start until he was knocked into a spin by Michael Schumacher on lap eight, which cost him a place to Adrian Sutil.

Kobayashi pitted on lap 13 but made a slow getaway from his pit box and clipped Force India’s airlines as he tried to avoid hitting Pastor Maldonado.

He was given a stop-go penalty for the infraction and the team were fined ?óÔÇÜ?¼20,000 for an “unsafe release”.

The contact with Maldonado damaged his front wing, allowing Nick Heidfeld and Jaime Alguersuari to overtake him. He fell to 18th place after taking his penalty.

Three laps later the team noticed the car was losing oil and told him to stop. “I was very unlucky,” he said.

“I think there is not a lot for me to say about the accident with Michael. We were not side by side, and he obviously hit the rear of my car. From then on I had to drive with a damaged car.”

Kamui Kobayashi 2011 form guide

Sergio Perez, Nick Heidfeld, Silverstone, 2011
Sergio Perez, Nick Heidfeld, Silverstone, 2011

Sergio Perez

In a very close qualifying session Perez was less than four-hundredths of a second off reaching Q3, but ended up 12th.

He lost a place to Schumacher at the start but gained another from Maldonado a few laps later.

Perez stayed out of trouble and exploited Sauber’s usual tactic of stretching his stints out to make one fewer pit stop than most of the cars ahead.

He spent much of the final stint on Nico Rosberg’s tail. Although he was disappointed not to be able to pass Mercedes, he was satisfied with the result:

“Unfortunately I couldn?óÔé¼Ôäót overtake Nico. I was very close but he was too fast on the straights.

“Overall I am happy and now the difficult times are behind me. After the accident it took me time to get back into the rhythm of the season, and find the momentum I had before it. In two weeks?óÔé¼Ôäó time I shall be even stronger.

Sergio Perez 2011 form guide

2011 British Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Sauber: Perez claims best-ever result”

  1. Kobayashi endures a race to forget.

    It really was a race to forget for Kamui. The bad crash in practice made a lot of damage. But then his qualifying was excellent. Then in the race the spin wasn’t his fault, and the pit lane accident was only partly his fault, and even with the damage he had he had another problem with an oil leak and retired.

    1. Sauber is still looking very strong, although Kobayashi had a race to quickly forget dispite some good moves done as well.

  2. Perez is having a fine rookie season, if I say so myself. I’d actually say he’s doing better that di Resta, regardless of the difference in the cars.

    1. Its a shame we never got to see Sergio race in Monaco. I suspect he would have been really stellar there..

      1. Yep. Didn’t he win one of the GP2 races there last year?

    2. I have the same opinion… And I personally rate Sergio higher then Kobayashi…

  3. Great performance for Sergio… Thumbs up!

  4. Perez did great job. actually I think he could pass Nico but he didn’t make it. Kobayashi’s race was total disaster. It’s shame it was good chance.

  5. Koba’s overtake on Maldonado, just after Maldonado overtook him, was epic stuff.

    The kind of thing no one but him seems to do on a racetrack!

    1. +1

      He seems to have a great feel for “going for it” but still stay on the safe side and keep his nose clean, both literally and figuratively.

      He definitely had “one of those days” sunday, throwing away his great qualy.. I expect him to bounce back though.

  6. Hope both sauber drivers make it to the points next gp

  7. Both sauber drivers could be world champions

  8. Certainly a great race for Perez, a champion in the making! It must have been encouraging for him to be able to start to reap some poins after the loss of those in the initial race of the year and the accident in Monaco. Well done Perez! We trust the Sauber team will capitalize on this grand prix to prepare for the next one, hopefully both cars in points zone.

  9. Perez keeps showing he is going to be a star of the future with drives like this. He dealt well with the pressure of arriving to the grid late after his crash on the parade lap.

    They didn’t show anything of Kobayashi’s crash or retirement at the track so I was completely unaware of the fact he didn’t finish until I watched the race at home

  10. A cracking race for Sergio, Sauber has landed himself a top driver there, clearly his confidence hasn’t been knocked.

    Disappointed for Kamui. Clearly a weekend to forget and it’s always painful seeing him overtaken but I guess that’s motorsport for you!

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