Sauber made their usual strategy gamble but gearbox problems ended their race.
| Kamui Kobayashi | Sergio Perez | |
| Qualifying position | 17 | 15 |
| Qualifying time comparison (Q2) | 1’25.065 (+0.22) | 1’24.845 |
| Race position | ||
| Laps | 21/53 | 32/53 |
| Pit stops | 2 | 0 |
Sauber drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):
| 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 | |
| Kamui Kobayashi | 136.945 | 140.751 | 131.358 | 93.098 | 92.725 | 92.225 | 92.231 | 91.169 | 91.325 | 91.226 | 91.054 | 90.941 | 91.292 | 91.028 | 90.939 | 90.894 | 91.465 | 96.166 | 110.394 | 92.102 | 90 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sergio Perez | 126.009 | 142.894 | 136.145 | 94.026 | 93.944 | 92.096 | 91.656 | 92.21 | 90.967 | 90.724 | 90.698 | 90.588 | 90.605 | 90.457 | 90.815 | 90.813 | 91.64 | 91.077 | 94.246 | 90.274 | 90.461 | 90.565 | 90.981 | 90.29 | 90.131 | 90.091 | 90.175 | 89.785 | 89.403 | 89.51 | 89.736 | 94.022 |
Kamui Kobayashi
| Start tyre | Medium |
| Pit stop 1 | Soft 27.55s |
| Pit stop 2 | Soft 22.939s |
Like Perez, Kobayashi started the race on medium tyres. But he picked up damage on the first lap and had to pit for a new front wing:
“Everybody tried to stop so as not to run into the accident,” he said afterwards. “I touched the car which braked in front of me.
“Not only did my front wing come lose, but I also damaged a tyre and therefore I had to change to a set of used soft tyres.”
He retired on lap 22 when he lost power in all gears.
Kamui Kobayashi 2011 form guide
Sergio Perez
| Start tyre | Medium |
Perez shared row seven with his team mate but out-qualified Kobayashi – for the eighth time this year – by three tenths of a second.
He ran until lap 33 – well past half-distance – without changing his tyres. He was up to seventh place and had a good chance of keeping the position until his gearbox failed as well.
“We missed a great opportunity to score points today,” he said.
2011 Italian Grand Prix
Image © Sauber F1 Team
BasCB (@bascb)
12th September 2011, 11:52
is probably the most accurate review of Saubers weekend here.
A shame really, their party trick looked like it might have been good for double points like in Australia here.
Fixy (@)
12th September 2011, 11:55
I wonder why Sauber always try their strategy gamble. Surely they could battle for the points without suffering at the end of the long stints they make?
slr
12th September 2011, 12:13
It doesn’t seem as if they would struggled as much here at the end of the race, in comparison to say Hungary. Double points looked promising for Sauber.
Piero
13th September 2011, 3:36
This time around the Di Resta – Alguersuari – Senna train only gained 3 seconds vs Pérez (who was on old medium tyres). He was holding the gap just fine, so no need for fresh softs. He was looking at 15-16 laps with the soft set.
It was 7th for him for sure, and Kamui didn’t have to use those medium tyres, so he was poised for points as well.
A true shame, 3 gearboxes failing in one weekend, they really have to get to the bottom of this!
Icthyes (@icthyes)
12th September 2011, 13:40
Yeh if anywhere was going to yield results it was here, with such a high pit-stop penalty. Even more annoyed as I had Kobayashi down for points in another predictions game!
Mr draw
12th September 2011, 12:39
Wow, 33 laps without pitstop! :O
Marco
12th September 2011, 13:12
Koba is slipping into anonymity recently and Sergio is getting faster and faster weekend after weekend… As I expected… :)
slr
12th September 2011, 13:25
Perez is usually ahead on Saturday, whilst Kobayashi is faster on Sunday. Sauber have steadily fell back behind their rivals in the past few races.
Frans
12th September 2011, 14:40
Actually Kobayashi Q1 time is a lot closer to Perez than his Q2 time. Perez still edge it by a very tiny margin.
wasiF1 (@wasif1)
13th September 2011, 2:44
Well I guess looking at their strategy one if not two of them could have ended up in the points.
yohei (@yohei)
13th September 2011, 4:03
I really want to know that Kamui has no clue or Perez is just faster than general. In Q session, Perez is always faster than Kamui but Kamui scored many points than Perez on Sunday.
In recent days, fans of Kamui are so disappointed in Japan.
And the popularity is also declining.
Ahh…Japanese have a ability only to product cars?
No ability to drive a racing car?
I feel blue…
from JPN
xxiinophobia (@xxiinophobia)
13th September 2011, 7:47
I’m fairly sure I read recently that Sauber has fallen behind the competition in the middle third of the season because they stopped developing their blown diffuser after Valencia, the reason being it was originally supposed to be outlawed from Silverstone.
I still think both drivers are doing fine and are only suffering from lack of development relative to their rivals.
Perez does tend to be faster in qualifying (whereas Kobayashi is typically weak in this area), but on balance I don’t think there’s much difference between them.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
14th September 2011, 17:55
Not exactly their best race. A shame really, they have the components of a great team. Is it possible the gearbox issues could be linked? Obviously not physically, but somewhere down the line in production?