Malaysian GP: Sauber qualifying report

Under difficult conditions the team got the timing and the tyre strategy right and achieved its best qualifying result so far this year. Kamui Kobayashi qualified ninth for the Malaysian Grand Prix. This is the first top ten grid position of his F1 ...

Under difficult conditions the team got the timing and the tyre strategy right and achieved its best qualifying result so far this year. Kamui Kobayashi qualified ninth for the Malaysian Grand Prix. This is the first top ten grid position of his F1 career to date, and the first one for the team this year. Pedro de la Rosa, who shone with the second fastest lap in Q1, just missed making it into Q3 when he got stuck in traffic. He qualified 12th.

Kamui Kobayashi:

"I am very happy to have made it into Q3 for the first time. Last year in Brazil, also in wet conditions, I was close but then I spun on my last lap in Q2. I learnt this lesson. In dry conditions our performance seemed to be rather difficult, therefore I am even happier with my position. It is not easy to drive in the wet because of aquaplaning, which obviously will get worse if it rains tomorrow because of the heavy cars for the race start. But I am determined to score points tomorrow."

Pedro de la Rosa:

"It was a quite difficult qualifying because of the changeable conditions. You never knew how much water to expect when braking into a corner. The car was pretty good in the wet, and I could have made it into the top ten if I just had a single clear lap. But even on my fastest lap I had to overtake two cars in the last sector. However, certainly we can look forward to a very exciting race tomorrow!"

Peter Sauber, Team Principal:

"It's nice to have one car in 12th and the other one in the top ten. The engineers and drivers did a good job today. This result is motivating for the whole team. We are looking forward to a thrilling race."

Willy Rampf, Technical Director:

"After free practice three we made some changes to the cars. We decided not to run the new rear wing system on Kamui's car. Due to the constantly changing weather conditions it was an exciting qualifying in which we made the best decisions with regard to strategy and timing. The team was rewarded with a solid result. Kamui's performance was strong and he managed to make it into the top ten."