Sauber: Kobayashi helps team clinch seventh

Sauber held on to seventh in the constructors’ championship.

	Kamui Kobayashi	Sergio Perez
Qualifying position	16	17
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)	1’14.129 (-0.053)	1’14.182
Race position	9	13
Laps	70/71	70/71
Pit stops	2	2

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

https://www.racefans.net/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	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60	61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70	71
Kamui Kobayashi	90.911	81.282	81.257	79.916	79.852	79.557	79.819	79.69	79.646	80.14	79.59	80.165	79.765	79.496	79.432	79.383	79.598	79.394	79.375	80.11	83.688	96.713	78.746	78.008	78.271	78.056	77.953	78.298	78.316	78.708	78.547	78.444	78.457	78.045	78.453	78.149	78.085	78.331	78.499	78.439	78.914	79.6	83.367	92.155	77.875	77.828	79.01	78.243	79.513	79.044	78.626	78.347	78.127	78.206	77.644	78.008	77.836	78.023	77.998	77.783	77.712	78.215	77.922	79.792	78.399	78.031	78.107	79.075	77.701	77.89
Sergio Perez	91.652	81.405	81.316	80.58	80.053	80.052	79.778	79.787	79.892	79.857	79.808	80.342	79.865	80.043	79.843	79.871	79.945	80.031	80.239	85.132	94.217	79.074	78.735	78.43	78.357	78.603	78.567	78.345	78.762	79.126	78.538	79.367	78.652	78.633	87.324	78.957	80.51	80.352	79.063	78.898	79.514	79.695	79.836	83.501	92.736	78.671	78.714	78.623	78.37	78.459	78.679	78.735	78.903	78.406	79.086	78.426	78.174	78.148	77.889	78.098	78.005	77.933	77.78	78.375	77.932	78.389	78.002	78.283	78.078	78.188

Kamui Kobayashi

Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber, Interlagos, 2011

Start tyre	Soft
Pit stop 1	Soft 25.117s
Pit stop 2	Medium 21.231s

Kobayashi admitted he had difficulty just reaching Q2 in the Sauber: “I was really fighting on every lap. It was tight to get into Q2 because already in Q1 it was difficult to warm up the tyres.”

Kobayashi struck an important blow in the constructors’ championship battle with Toro Rosso, splitting the two drivers. He then jumped Sebastien Buemi at the first round of pit stops.

“The team did a very good job to recover from a really bad qualifying,” he said. “I had a good start and also a good race pace. We worked a lot on the race pace and I’m happy that I was able to score in the final two races of the season. It was important for us to finish ahead of Toro Rosso and I’m glad we managed to do that.”

After several point-less finished in the middle of the season, Kobayashi has now scored in the last two races, which helped Sauber secure seventh in the constructors’ championship.

Kamui Kobayashi 2011 form guide

Sergio Perez

Start tyre	Soft
Pit stop 1	Soft 22.221s
Pit stop 2	Medium 21.337s

Perez struggled on his way to 16th in qualifying: “The main problem for me was that the car was so inconsistent: every lap was different, and I couldn’t get temperature into the tyres.”

He was one of several drivers who set his car up expecting rain on Sunday, and found the car less well suited to the dry conditions.

“The rear tyres tended to overheat,” he said. “The car was quite difficult to drive and I’m sorry for the spin at half distance.”

Sergio Perez 2011 form guide

2011 Brazilian Grand Prix

Browse all 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix articles

Image © Sauber F1 Team

9 comments on “Sauber: Kobayashi helps team clinch seventh”

sato113 (@sato113)
28th November 2011, 12:41

what a crucial drive by KOB. he pulled that performance out of the bag when the team needded it the most.

Fixy (@)
28th November 2011, 21:04

Exactly @sato113! Very well done, mature driving by Kamui.

smifaye (@)
28th November 2011, 12:49

Glad Kobayashi got some points in the last two races as he was starting to falter somewhat. It is a shame that Sauber just can’t keep up with the rate of development of the other teams. Well I assume that this is the problem and why they dropped off the pace towards the end of the season. After a great start to the season, albeit with some illegal wings, I thought they would be and should have been a lot further ahead of the Toro Rossos.

Marco_ferrari
28th November 2011, 12:52

Toro Rosso had some bad luck, too… In Spa both cars were looking for a strong race…
bosyber (@bosyber)
29th November 2011, 12:27

They apparently decided not to pursue a true off-throttle blowing EBD. Possibly because the Ferrari engine doesn’t do it as well as the Renault or Mercedes (as the the Scuderia Ferrari contrasting pace in Silverstone+quali/race shows), so the gain wasn’t worth the cost for them, and they didn’t seem to expect the STR and FI to take off so well after the summer break.

But it does mean their car is fundamentally sound, so next year they can evolve it, so that’s good.