Sauber British GP - Silverstone Race Report

Weather: drying track, 20-21°C air, 22-29°C track

Sergio Pérez displayed his fighting spirit in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone when he fought his way from 12th on the grid up to seventh to score his best result in Formula 1. The young Mexican’s result gives the Sauber F1 Team another six world championship points.

Sergio Perez, Sauber F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

His team-mate, Kamui Kobayashi, unfortunately had bad luck. After being the innocent victim of an accident he had to drive a damaged car, then he had bad luck during a pit stop and eventually retired due to an oil leak. This was the first retirement of a Sauber C30-Ferrari in 2011 due to a technical problem.

Sergio Pérez: 7th

Sauber C30-Ferrari (Chassis 02 / Ferrari 056)
Tyres: start on intermediate, after 12 laps change to soft, after 32 laps to soft

“I think it was a good race and a very good result for the team. In the beginning the conditions were quite difficult, but we managed to stay out of trouble. The strategy was good and my pit stops were perfect. Unfortunately I couldn’t overtake Nico (Rosberg). 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’ time I shall be even stronger.”

Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber F1 Team

Photo by: xpb.cc

Kamui Kobayashi: DNF retired after 23 laps

Sauber C30-Ferrari (Chassis 01 / Ferrari 056)
Tyres: start on intermediate, after 11 laps change to soft

“It is a real shame because our overall performance was good this weekend. In today’s race I was very unlucky. I think there is not a lot for me to say about the accident with Michael (Schumacher). 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. Then I had bad luck with the pit stop, was given the stop and go penalty, and finally had to stop because I was told on the radio there was an oil leak and I should pull off the track.“

Peter Sauber, Team Principal:

“I am very happy with Sergio’s seventh place, so congratulations to him. It was a difficult race for him, as for almost the whole distance he had to follow Nico Rosberg. He had more speed, but it was not enough to overtake. As for Kamui’s race, the incident with Michael Schumacher was quite annoying. It was an unnecessary collision that cost Kamui his chances of a good finish.”

James Key, Technical Director:

“It has been a decent result for us today. I think Sergio did a great job of controlling a race which was tricky in many ways with the adverse conditions to begin with, and then just a single tyre change onto the dry tyres. He was battling with Nico Rosberg for pretty much the whole race, sadly be couldn’t get through.

His start wasn’t great, so he dropped back a bit, but he hauled that back with his pace and the strategy, which was a good effort by the whole team. It was a great shame for Kamui, as he was looking competitive, but then he had a coming together with a Mercedes. Then during his stop we had a problem which resulted in him being released later than originally planned and unfortunately there was an unintentional clash with a Williams.

That took a huge amount of downforce away from his front wing and he was then unfortunately quite slow. Then he had a ten second drive through penalty and an engine oil issue, possibly due to the impact he had with the Mercedes, so we decided to retire him and not damage the engine. At the end of the day we have come away from a long weekend with points so thank you to the team.”

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