Kobayashi battles to eighth for Sauber's first points

Kobayashi battles to eighth for Sauber’s first points

2011 Malaysian GP team review

April 11, 2011 at 3:25 pm by Keith Collantine

Kamui Kobayashi scored points in the Malaysian Grand Prix and this time the team were allowed to keep them.

	Kamui Kobayashi	Sergio Perez
Qualifying position	10	16
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)	1’36.691 (-0.837)	1’37.528
Race position	7
Laps	56/56	23/56
Pit stops	2	1

Sauber drivers’ lap times throughout the race:

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	53	54	55	56
Kamui Kobayashi	116.818	106.952	105.888	105.665	105.734	107.798	106.124	106.983	105.739	106.045	106.24	107.034	107.123	107.276	107.209	108.327	112.179	123.613	103.305	103.453	103.566	104.226	104.835	105.252	104.58	105.22	105.402	104.662	104.448	104.057	104.883	104.917	105.738	105.279	106.12	109.776	122.584	103.095	102.095	102.334	102.758	104.618	102.308	102.547	103.355	102.47	102.126	104.922	102.934	102.725	103.321	103.365	103.938	103.552	104.005	104.753
Sergio Perez	120.065	108.738	107.417	105.798	105.78	106.585	106.527	107.029	106.89	107.186	107.447	107.418	109.262	108.872	110.306	111.462	114.012	123.605	103.298	103.352	103.408	103.649	104.091

Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber, Sepang, 2011

Kamui Kobayashi

Just as team mate Sergio Perez used a one-stop strategy in Melbourne, Kobayashi made one fewer stop than most drivers and used it to pick up points in Sepang.

He spent the opening laps in a spirited battle with Mark Webber for ninth place. Kobayashi eventually got the better of the wounded, KERS-less Red Bull.

He stayed out until lap 17 on soft tyres – the longest of any driver – even as his lap times rose into the 1’47s. He delayed his second stop too and was passed by Michael Schumacher but, as he had with Webber, Kobayashi hit back with another smart re-pass.

He demonstrated the Sauber’s kindness to its tyres by staying out 19 laps on his second set of soft tyres, allowing him to polish off the remaining 21 on hards. Although he was passed by Vitaly Petrov he inherited eighth place again when the Renault driver crashed out.

He was later promoted to seventh by Lewis Hamilton’s penalty.

Kamui Kobayashi 2011 form guide

Sergio Perez

Perez lined up six places behind Kobayashi and ran a similar strategy.

His lap times early in the second stint looked promising but he hit a piece of debris but he was forced to retire: “Something came off Sébastien Buemi’s car, which was just in front of me, and hit the floor of my car.

“The fire extinguisher went off and the electrics cut out. It was a shame I couldn’t finish the race as the car felt good.”

Sergio Perez 2011 form guide

2011 Malaysian Grand Prix

Browse all 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix articles

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33 comments on Kobayashi battles to eighth for Sauber’s first points

jk said on 12th April 2011, 15:42

Kobayashi will go places, as its been said, he is a very clever and very skillful, its one thing to try an overtake thats a little risky but quite another to not make contact and keep it on track if dont work out!! Immense car control in my book.

As the car improves so will his performance so watch this space. I always said he would make a great driver and so far I was on the money, added to this he is an absolute joy to watch.

Perez is a good driver too, makes me laugh in interviews as not the usual corporate clone some drivers are (a bit like Karun Chandok) but very talented if so far very unfortunate. Its still early days though, I can see a few battles between Perez & Kobayashi in the future.