Kobayashi disappointed his last-lap pass didn’t count

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Kamui Kobayashi said he was pleased with his race despite losing a position due to a quirk of the rules.

The Caterham driver passed Jules Bianchi for 17th place on the 56th and final lap of the race. However due to a procedural error the chequered flag was waved a lap early, meaning the race result was taken from lap 54 and Kobayashi was classified 18th.

“Finishing 18th isn’t the final position we’d want,” he sad, “but after a really good battle with Jules I’m relatively pleased with how today’s race went”.

“However, it’s a real shame that my move on him on the last lap now doesn’t count due to the mistake with the chequered flag, something we had nothing to do with.

“We’d had a really good battle for the last few laps of the race and I got him on what was the last lap, until it turned out the chequered flag had been waved a lap too early by mistake – until we found that out after the race it had been good to see what a small victory like that does for the team as it lifted everyone at the end of a very tough first four races of 2014.”

“It was a really good battle with Jules, clean racing,” he added.

“I finally passed him going into the hairpin at the end of the back straight, having feinted left in turn 11 so I had a better run on him onto the straight which set him up for the pass into turn 14.

“As I say, through no fault of our own that result now doesn’t count but we’ll just have to dig deeper in Spain and fight back there.”

2014 Chinese Grand Prix

Browse all 2014 Chinese Grand Prix articles

Image © Caterham/LAT

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

14 comments on “Kobayashi disappointed his last-lap pass didn’t count”

  1. Since it’s only for the 17th position, I really don’t think it will be a big deal in the battle for P10 in the WCC. Luckily for the rest of teams, there were no overtakes in the last two laps. Only possibility was Bottas overtaking Hulkenberg but it was great defending by the latter who admitted that Bottas could have passed using DRS.

    1. At the end of the season, if it’s a draw between Caterham and Marrusia, then after counting back race positions this could end up being decisive. Every position matters.

      1. Not when they have higher positions already. I’d be surprised if it had to counted back this far. That said you are right.

        This is a total joke, who cares if the flag was waved early. Clearly nobody at the FIA had an sense this weekend. It’s not exactly difficult to just apply the true result to the tables at the end. Idiots.

  2. Can’t blame for being disappointed. It was a good move. It might be for the last place as well but it always satisfies a driver to race and come out on top and even more so if it’s the last lap.

  3. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    20th April 2014, 15:43

    Koba should be dissapointed his team still can’t fight for a point after 5 years.

  4. Since when does Kamui speak that fluent/fluidly ? In English

  5. I feel sorry for massa, hes been so unlucky this year though, had a great start and ruined by that pitstop. Even though bottas is ahead in the points, massas still beating him in quali, so I think he’s better

    1. Massa has a tendency to dive around the grid on the way to the first corner (which is fine), but he shows a lack or awareness for those around him, or assumes people will move. One could argue that because of that he brought the bad pit stop on himself with damage to the real wheel nut caused by the collision.

      1. He didn’t. The incident at the start and the problems during the pit stop were unrelated, since his crew tried to fit the wrong tires. They got mixed up with the back left and back right tires.

  6. Kobayashi and Bianchi deserve so much more. Both extremely talented, both slightly erratic as well!

  7. Damned shame the he and the other teams and especially THE FANS got screwed out of the final laps. Great race for Koby though! I was wondering when he was going to start to fulfill his job requirements and that would have been the perfect result.

    Would have been…

  8. But he should be very proud of overtaking the RedBull….. Dat was quite unexpected from the Caterham…

    1. Not Vettel’s finest moment when he moaned about it over the radio either :-)

  9. Quite remarkable that a mistake like that can happen in this day and age. You’d think Charlie would have tighter control of what is a fairly fundamental part of running a Grand Prix!

Comments are closed.