Sauber: Two penalties in one race for Perez

2011 Chinese GP team review

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Sergio Perez picked up two penalties during the Chinese Grand Prix.

Kamui KobayashiSergio Perez
Qualifying position1312
Qualifying time comparison (Q2)1’36.236 (+0.183)1’36.053
Race position1017
Laps56/5655/56
Pit stops23

Sauber drivers’ lap times throughout the race:

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950515253545556
Kamui Kobayashi113.064106.676105.573105.003105.063105.522104.773105.372105.352105.527105.842105.168105.645111.302121.391106.879103.29103.58103.864104.043104.183103.55104.006103.907104.186104.437104.477104.415105.057110.413120.918102.577103.032102.82102.864103.307103.134103.115102.738102.768102.694102.784102.824102.786102.965102.661102.852103.211102.967103.322103.9103.838103.844103.879103.852104.287
Sergio Perez115.657107.461105.983106.689106.2105.598105.964105.912106.742106.1105.993105.743104.474104.736105.201110.414120.445103.72102.968103.457103.301103.373103.738103.34103.499103.621103.275103.557104.919105.749104.19103.695104.362104.822104.869108.681121.638102.235101.643101.981101.801102.901103.004101.889103.812103.695113.91107.07112.005106.738130.56102.338103.243102.845103.678

Kamui Kobayashi

Kobayashi was one of several drivers caught out by the red flag in Q2 and took 13th on the grid.

He passed Jaime Alguersuari for tenth and ran a two-stop strategy to hold onto the position.

Although he couldn’t keep Vitaly Petrov behind he passed Paul di Resta with four laps to go to claim the final point.

He damaged the nose of his car early on but it did not prove a great problem:

“When I was trying to get close to Adrian [Sutil] on lap 14 we came across another car and I think the driver did not see me. We touched and this was when I got a hole in the car’s nose.

“Technically it was not a problem to drive with that, but practically quite a lot of dust and dirt came into the cockpit. My white overalls looked awfully dirty in the end, but this is obviously not important.”

Kamui Kobayashi 2011 form guide

Sergio Perez, Sauber, Shanghai, 2011

Sergio Perez

Sergio Perez out-qualified his team mate for the first time but picked up two drive-through penalties during the race.

The first came after he collided with Sutil, which he apologised for: “Most importantly I’m very sorry for the accident with Adrian – I am sorry for him and sorry for my team. At this time in the race I wanted to get the most out of my tyres, as I was under pressure from Vitaly [Petrov], so was quite aggressive.

“Unfortunately I lost the rear when I was already on the inside of Adrian and crashed into him. It is a real shame because, as I said before, this weekend I felt a lot more comfortable with the car than ever before.”

His second penalty appears to have been for his collision with Nick Heidfeld. An FIA stewards’ statement (PDF link) says no action was taken, however the team believe that is what the penalty was issued for.

Sergio Perez 2011 form guide

2011 Chinese Grand Prix

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    Image © Sauber F1 Team

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    31 comments on “Sauber: Two penalties in one race for Perez”

    1. Kobayashi finishing in the points again. Tough race for Perez but he showed flashes of skill in his overtaking; very fast and aggressive. Hopefully he can focus his aggression a bit more like Kobayashi has and added with a decent upgrade heading to Europe I wouldn’t be surprised to see both Saubers consistently in the points. (At least thats what I would like lol)

      1. Agree. A lot of people are saying that Perez drove awfully during the race, but I thought he was awesomely aggressive but made a mistake when he was racing Sutil. The Heidfeld incident was as much Nick’s fault as it was Sergio’s. Nick just shut the door on him too late and there was contact.

        1. Yeah, his aggression is a lot like Kobayashi last year. If they can make some upgrades to the car, I think they could be fighting for points pretty regularly.

    2. I didn’t understand if the second penalty was applied during or after the race.

      1. They should stop these penalties. Mistakes and racing shouldn’t be punished like this. Idiotic stewards.

    3. Bit of a reckless race for Perez but he certainly does show a lot potential, especially in overtakes. Maybe Kamui’s been giving him lessons. =P

    4. Curious, even the team doesn’t know for sure what that penalty exactly was for!

      1. The FIA are pathetic.

        1. In this case, definitely – how can they not know what they issued a penalty for! And how does a penalty have any signalling effect if it is unclear what you did wrong to receive it.

    5. Perez – 3 penalties in 3 races. ;)

      1. This could be record. isn’t it?

    6. Loving Koba more race by race, doesn’t seem japanese at all!. And Perez aswell: once we get to those European tracks he knows, he’ll definetly shine.

      Great job by Sauber!

      1. soundscape (@)
        19th April 2011, 3:36

        doesn’t seem japanese at all

        Huh?

        1. I think he meant Kobayashi’s unlike the previous Japanese drivers we’ve seen in F1. Satoru Nakajima got a podium, and Sato can be fast at times, but it seems that Kobayashi could be the whole package.

    7. After an impressive debut in the last two races of 2009, Kamui’s 2010 season began with crashes and car failures. Around this time last year many people were thinking he needed to dial back the aggressive and drive smarter. By summer it was obvious he had and began racing impressively, especially at Suzuka.

      I think Perez can go through the same kind of evolution, because he seems to have great talent as a base. Maybe Kobayashi was able to mature as a driver being around Pedro de la Rosa last year. Hopefully, Sergio can learn the same lessons from Kamui this season.

      1. You make it seem like Kobayashi was just crashing into cars last year. The bulk of the incidents in which he was involved in last year, he was just a victim of other drivers losing control of their cars. There were only 1 or 2 incidents when he caused an accident.

    8. Two aggressive young drivers makes me smile. All hail Peter Sauber!

    9. Woah kobayashi’s lap times after his second stop are very consistent and for a hell of a lot of laps!! That sauber is so easy on it’s tires

    10. So even the stewards don’t know what the second penalty was for? I don’t use this acronym often, but ***?

    11. I read PDF but couldn’t find Perez’s penalty.
      car 15 is Di Resta’s. :)

      1. That’s what I thought too. Mind you the FIA have missed out half the technical report for the race so maybe he did get another drive through

      2. I read somewhere that it was 10,000.

    12. Fernando Deutsch
      18th April 2011, 19:52

      Perez lost to many positions at the start, I though he was on hards but actually was running softs. Did some good passes and was having times very close to Renault. Indeed I think Checo overtook himself when trying passing Sutil. The situation with Heidfield was for me a race incident only, they were figthing for position.

      Koba has done a great job, even his pace on race was a bit slower than Checo, he did a great race start and helped him a lot. I think Sauber has been good on race pace. I always check the real timing, it gives you a great insight of what is happening at the race.

    13. But look at his pace compared with KOB’s…

    14. Seems a bit odd about the second drive-through penalty, not quite sure I understand that!

      Nice to see Perez finish his second race, shame he couldn’t finish any higher.

      Great again from Kobayashi.

    15. As with Fer no.65 (up there ^ somewhere)I’m looking forward to seeing Perez on the European tracks, should be interesting, I like the early signs of watching this guy race F1 cars. Kamui is a madman.

    16. 3 races in and Kobayashi has been finishing ahead of all other midfielders at every race (bar the DSQ). Also, it’s great to see Sauber with better reliability this year. So far, no exploded engine yet!

    17. Well done for Kobayashi and Sauber; and Perez, well, his middle stint is really nicely consistent at least and he does seem to have pace. Looking forward to see him calm down a bit and get some good results. The Sauber is definitely easy on its tyres, so they don’t loose as much time as others dropping down the field during pitstops.

      Interesting that Kobayashi has changed to let others who are faster past relatively easy early on in the race so as not to loose much time defending, knowing their pit-stops might drop them behind again. They look to be regular points scorers.

    18. Although it doesn’t seem the popular opinion, I think the knock that Perez gave to Heidfeld did deserve a penalty. Nick had closed the line already, yet Sergio still went into a gap that was always going to disappear, or actually, was gone before he arrived.

      An overoptimistic move to say the least.

    19. Don’t focus on the penalties, focus on that little graph with the laptimes. Perez has been like that in all 3 races, very close to Kobayashi :)

      Actually, Petrov and he were catching the Sutil-Kobayashi-Di Resta train when the incident happened… looking at where Petrov ended up, it could have been Sergio in the points.

      If he learns fast and stays out of trouble, he’ll be on Kobayashi’s neck by the end of the season.

    20. The news came out that Sauber looks to have another sponsor! This is what having two young aggressive drivers will do for you… gets your car on the television more often. You don’t need to be the leading cars to get seen, as long as your driver’s are keeping it exciting.

      Meanwhile Sutil is concerned over how he is doing compared to diResta, full of self-doubt it seems.

      The only thing that Sauber may want to consider changing is engines. Unlike mercedes and Renault, Ferrari is known to use a better version of their engine for themselves. But a better engine could see them up towards the front a little more.

      But I could be completely wrong and Sauber may surprise us and win a race or two. I hope so, I really really do.

      Vettel, Kobayashi, diResta, and Perez in a four way battle would be great, if just for a few laps.

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